Morrison caught in sports rorts lie after inquiry discovers 43% of grants were ineligible
Scott Morrison has long defended the sports grant program, repeatedly claiming that there were no ineligible projects funding through it.
Fronting a Senate inquiry yesterday, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) sensationally claimed that 43% of the projects awarded funds through the sports grant scheme were ineligible, contradicting Scott Morrison’s oft-repeated promises that there were no ineligible projects awarded money.
As
AAP noted in January “an independent review released last week, found
the Morrison government used the sports grants program as a virtual slush fund for its re-election efforts, overlooking projects approved by an independent panel in favour of splashing cash in ‘targeted’ seats.”
“Every single one of the projects approved was eligible, every rule followed in relation to the program. The rules were followed. We are looking closely at the report,” Prime Minister Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise on the morning of January 20.
Yesterday, the Australian National Audit Office redoubled the findings of their
report tabled by the Australian National Audit Office was extremely critical of the way in which the A$100 million in sporting grants were awarded by Minister McKenzie ahead of last year’s election campaign.
It found successful applications were “not those that had been assessed as the most meritorious” and that there was “distributional bias” in the way projects were approved. The problem is many of the grants were awarded to bodies within marginal seats or seats the Coalition wanted to win.
Crucially, Morrison has thrown McKenzie under the bus, claiming that he had little influence over the way the cash flowed. However, ANAO officials also revealed the prime minister’s office made “direct” representations about which projects to fund, and the Liberal National Party of Queensland submitted a wish-list of projects in a key marginal seat.
Prior to her dismissal, Senator McKenzie said that “no rules were broken” and she was given discretionary powers “for a purpose” in the program’s guidelines.
“What that actually meant was that there were more projects supported and funded in Labor seats than if that ministerial discretion had not been deployed,” Senator McKenzie said.
Since, the Morrison government has survived an internal investigation by the PM’s secretary, one that will never purportedly be released to the public. Gazing at the repeated scandal, and where the money was directed, this can only be viewed as severe political corruption, an act that clearly influenced the shock result in last year’s election.
Morrison is caught in a very serious, very obvious lie. So, what happens now?
https://www.thebigsmoke.com.au/2020...quiry-discovers-43-of-grants-were-ineligible/
