Page 842 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 2 May 2007
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A chief executive spent $149 on hotel drinks and movie tickets. The hotel drinks were $96.95, paid for on 4 April, and were repaid on 19 May. It was an error by the checking clerk in that the chief executive provided two credit cards at the time for the payment of drinks and meals. Both amounts were unfortunately processed on the same card. That chief executive also bought movie tickets worth $53 on 19 January. This was a mistake which was corrected immediately that Chief Executive received his statement four weeks later.
A chief executive spent $313 at a fashion stall. This was an inadvertent use of the incorrect credit card on 1 April 2006. The amount was fully paid three weeks later when the error was notified.
The point needs to be made that all of these repayments were made before the audit. All of these repayments were made as a result of internal checking and by chief executives monitoring their own statements and by departmental checking mechanisms. In other words, the internal systems worked on every occasion.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety executive paid a liquor store $329.60 for a retreat in Bungendore. The expenses were incurred by ACT WorkCover. The expenditure approved by the commissioner related to a planning conference held at that time.
Corrective services staff used their credit card to spend $2,100 during a conference in Seoul. The conference was an Asia-Pacific conference of correctional administrators. It was attended by the head of ACT Corrections as head of the Australian delegation. The payment was for the conference accommodation and meals; there was no alcohol; and it did not include air fares.
The Department of Territory and Municipal Services spent $3,250 on a credit card at a Singapore resort. The business expenditure was incurred by two executives in Canberra Tourism and relates to five nights accommodation for the two executives. They were in Singapore at the time promoting Canberra pursuant to their responsibilities. We have benefited very significantly from that particular expenditure.
I reiterate that, in every single instance of those expenditures that were inappropriate, in relation to which I have expressed my regret that incorrect cards were used, the chief executive, upon having his or her attention drawn to the fact that an inappropriate expenditure appeared on a corporate credit card, immediately repaid that amount. Those amounts were repaid as a result of internal checking mechanisms, illustrating that our systems work and are appropriate. That is why the Auditor-General reported that the systems are appropriate.
Senior executives themselves noted that, in their returns, an inappropriate expenditure occurred in their bank statements in relation to expenditure on those credit cards. In not one instance were these issues responded to or corrected as some sudden understanding close to an Auditor-General’s inquiry. All other expenditures were either approved by the chief executive, consistent with guidelines, or by the appropriate authorising officer, and involved expenditure on the business of government, namely, the expansion and identification of opportunities for the people of the ACT.
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