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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2693 ..

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. artsACT initiated a wide-ranging follow-up of 1994 and 1995 Funding Program grants for which acquittals were outstanding. This process has been very successful, with all Annual Program and other larger outstanding grants now acquitted. Remaining unacquitted grants are included in a special `Unacquitted' register within artsACT to ensure no further funding is granted to these recipients.

. The Government disagrees with only one of the Committee's recommendations.

. This concerns the publication of details of grant recipients who have not acquitted their grants in the Departmental Annual Report. It is considered that current procedures are now more than effective in ensuring that further grants are not paid to applicants with unacquitted previous funding.

. Publishing the names of recipients of unacquitted grants may be an invasion of privacy. It could be potentially defamatory as it could be perceived to imply that the recipient has not properly accounted for or has fraudulently dealt with Government monies. In fact, the reasons behind delayed acquittals are often complex and usually quite legitimate. To publish such details, I believe, is inappropriate and ineffective as a deterrent.

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