Page 772 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 1 May 2007
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It seems that if you raise an issue in this place that in any way involves public sector, where just under 50 per cent of our entire outlays are going, it is a crime. The Chief Minister takes personal exception. He says that people who have a statutory duty and who are elected to this place to examine these matters have no right to do so. I find that outrageous! Accountability is crucial to ensuring that spending decisions are made properly. In any effective organisation those in charge of management of the organisation must assess the adequacy of spending decisions. They must probe and question. They must evaluate and scrutinise. We do have that role here in this Assembly.
Accountability is more than merely keeping records of the dollars spent on this or that broad category. It means that sufficient information must be available to allow decisions to be scrutinised. I found it absolutely extraordinary today that every time we referred to matters that the Canberra Sunday Times raised with this government back in February, which were not answered, the ground moved over to an Auditor-General’s report. We are not talking about that. We are talking about a series of well-researched and considered questions—and I have large numbers of copies of these questions—which were sent to this government for which there are many, many outstanding answers. This is unacceptable conduct.
In the context of spending decisions, it must be possible to find out how much money was spent on what, but also why, this money was spent. What was its purpose? Was this purpose achieved? I have been critical of this government’s reckless attitude and lack of accountability for spending since I joined the Assembly. The spendthrift attitude is especially aggravated when you do not even keep proper records of how and why you were spending money. When the government cannot account for spending or when it does not feel the need to account for spending, you can be sure that waste is not far behind.
In an article published in the Canberra Sunday Times entitled “Expenses called to account”, Markus Mannheim writes:
The Canberra Sunday Times asked the bureaucracy last week for the total amount spent on each area in 2005-06.
These areas were hotels, meals, conferences and courses. The article continued:
While every item of public expenditure is allocated a cost centre that describes how funds were used, most departments were not able to answer without more time. Only ACT Health was able to quickly provide a detailed breakdown …
These figures contrast sharply with the corporate credit card record supplied to the Canberra Sunday Times which showed ACT government executives had spent at least $180,000 on hotels, $225,000 on conference and courses—many interstate and overseas—and $60,000 on food and drink. The Auditor-General found these amounts were likely to be a mere fraction of total expenditure.
The seven government departments and agencies she investigated spent about $1 million over the past two years on hospitality alone.
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