Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion that audit reports 27 and 28 respectively, which deal with the reporting of expenditure on consultants and the management of net appropriation agreements, be made parliamentary papers. Both of these reports highlight serious accountability failures of this government. Report No. 27 highlights an out-of-control consultants’ picnic, with a massive $361 million spent on consultancies in the 2003-04 financial year. The Auditor-General’s findings cover all 73 federal government agencies covered by the Financial Management and Accountability Act and reveal that none of the 73 financial management act agencies had correctly reported in all three regimes, as required by the legislation, the Senate and the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines.

The most fundamental requirements for public disclosure of consultancies are simply not being met. The Auditor-General analysed 31 of the 73 agencies in depth and his findings were disturbing: 30 were found to have serious reporting flaws in their annual report disclosures and one-quarter of all consultancies over $100,000 were not reported to the Senate, in flagrant breach of a Senate order requiring their disclosure. Report No. 28 found that government agencies have spent almost $6 billion of taxpayers’ money during the last eight financial periods without proper parliamentary authorisation. This is nothing short of scandalous. I fully support the Auditor-General’s call for agencies to improve the appalling lack of administrative controls on net appropriation arrangements. Accordingly, I support the motion that these reports be printed.

Question agreed to.

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