It’s no wonder the NSW solar grants scheme blew out and will cost far more than the former NSW government and opposition (and Greens) had estimated. A look at a previous report from the NSW Auditor-General released on October 31, helps to understand the problem. It shows that senior NSW public servants and the former Labor government are poor managers of the state’s assets.
In a damning comment in the report, the Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat said he was “concerned that the NSW government, an entity as large as any organisation listed on the stock exchange, employing more than 380,000 people with assets over $290 billion, and annual revenue of over $65 billion, does not have appropriate financial systems and processes to deliver quality and timely financial reports”.
The solar scheme could cost $2 billion instead of just over $300 million, and could have cost $4 billion if it hadn’t been killed off earlier this year. That’s just another example of the incompetence highlighted by the Auditor-General in the report “Volume Three Report to Parliament on the 2010-11 NSW Total State Sector Accounts”.
It contained the amazing news that for the eighth year in a row, the Auditor-General had qualified the NSW government accounts, that some government departments couldn’t get their accounts done on time, and that he had again found billions of dollars in erroneously reported transactions or accounting.
Some 25 of these “errors” were for amounts of more than $20 million, one was for more than $1 billion (which is an improvement; there were two errors in the 2010 financial year of a billion or more. Image that?).
Land and other assets totalling more than $9 billion are “missing” or not properly accounted for in the NSW government accounts.
It’s a level of incompetence that the former Labor NSW government allowed for years, and will challenge the new Liberal-National Party administration (which is as culpable over the solar scheme as the ALP is) to redress, let alone redress quickly. The O’Farrell government has already been shown to be a slow-moving government when it comes to administration.
In fact, if the NSW government was a listed company, eight audit qualifications in a row would have earned a please explain from shareholders and regulators and the share price would be at weak levels.
If these errors and omissions were reported by a leading company, say a bank, BHP Billiton, Qantas or Coles Group (for example only), there would be an outcry from the media and political classes.
But this report has been in the public domain for nine days, and we have seen barely a ripple. The outcry has been about Qantas, and the badly thought-out solar scheme. We now have evidence of the managerial incompetence and laziness in the public service that allowed the solar disaster to occur. But no outcry about the Auditor General’s most basic report, the fitness of the NSW government accounts and the accounting and financial systems used by the public service to administer $65 billion of revenue in the latest financial year to June 30.
The Auditor-General said he had issued a qualified independent auditor’s opinion “as the state could not identify the full extent and value of its land and infrastructure holdings for the eighth year in a row”.
“Estimates of the value of land not recognised, but potentially controlled, range between $3 billion and $4 billion, and related infrastructure between $4 billion and $5.5 billion.”
And he also said the quality and timeliness of financial reporting continues to concern him.
The Auditor-General believes more can be done by the government to address recent recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee to achieve reporting improvements, including the Treasury mandating “early close procedures” and developing better monthly reporting processes for government departments.
“I have made a number of recommendations to improve the quality and timeliness of financial reporting across the sector,’ said Achterstraat, “and I urge the government to consider these recommendations as a priority.”
While the state maintained its AAA credit rating, the Auditor-General warned against complacency. “It is important the government maintains fiscal discipline if it wishes to hold on to its existing credit rating,” he said.
NSW government departments are run by people earning hundreds of thousand of dollars in pay and bonuses a year. While many are hard-working and competent managers, there is obviously a large minority who are not earning their money.
What a joke that the ratings agencies are – 8 years of qualified reports and it’s still AAA???? Perhaps a little reality check…. and then look how quick they’ll get their act together. No wonder Australia tax dollars disappear into someone’s pocket – and I thought Arab public servants driving Ferraris was a joke!!!
“as the state could not identify the full extent and value of its land and infrastructure holdings for the eighth year in a row”.
As very recent employee I’ll give you a tip – the state government of Victoria has NFI either. The information isn’t even consolidated or computerised- it’s stored in paper folders.
The Coalition in NSW, together with the Greens agreed to the solar panel program. In fact, John Robertson stated yesterday, that it was the Coalition who accused the Labor Govt of not being generous enough. So, they should also be held responsible. As to the blow out etc, it’s obvious that there wasn’t sufficient monitoring of the program. However, in fairness, this will be seen to be a positive with the passage of time. It’s interesting now, that thanks to the O’Farrell Govt, the solar industry in NSW will probably disappear. Barry O’Farrell doesn’t like wind power either?
Funny how the media isn’t demanding answers from O’Farrell, nor did they even squeak when O’Farrell announced that he was going into debt? Only bad if Labor does it apparently!
Is there anything the previous NSW Labor government couldn’t stuff up???
@MALCOLM STREET – Yes, the ‘Staying Home Leaving Violence’ program that enables women and kids to remain in the home while the (usual)perpetrator has to leave. This positive program which has workers in most cities/regions etc has as its goal, the reduction of poverty forced on women who have to leave established homes and start again. It will also save the community money for obvious reasons? If a man assaults a stranger, he’s removed from that environment. Up until the last two?years, the perpetrator was rewarded while the victims were forced into further trauma, upheaval and poverty! This meant that too many women were forced to stay in abusive relationships.
Also, the NSW Labor Govt, in close relationship with the DPP and Homicide sectors in most police stations, have set up a body with the main task, to go over past homicides of women, family member homicides to gather information re whether these crimes could’ve been prevented; what to learn from them, and then to set up policies for all law enforcement agencies, (particularly grass roots policing) in order to prevent homicides of the future. This body has a name which escapes me for the moment. As a woman is murdered in this country every 7-10 days, this is a long awaited initiative.
Most women are murdered AFTER they leave the relationship. This should answer those who are critical of women who don’t leave immediately! They’re too scared to in most cases!
(during the past Labor Govt.)In the Illawarra, we have a police person who is the C0-Ordinator of the Illawarra Committee against Domestic Violence. The meetings are held on a regular basis with guest speakers – yesterday’s topic was the abuse of older persons? The Wollongong Police station has a male and female police officer whose sole tasks are in relation to crimes/victims of DV?
These initiatives are also present in other major police centres around the STATE of NSW!
(since the ’07 Election)The Labor Attorneys General, together with the Federal Attorney General have c0mmitted themselves to investing in programs that will see the end of these horrific crimes against vulnerable people – women and kids! I just hope that the new AGs continue with this investment for the upholding of human rights for women and kids? (the overwhelming number of these assaults are perpetrated by men against women – of course there are other crimes but these are the major ones?)
This is one major area that the previous govt addressed and put monies into. I applaud them for that! One day, committing acts of violence against women will be seen by the community in the same way we view driving while drunk – reprehensible and destructive acts!