Aust sacks fraudsters

WORKERS charged with improving Papua New Guinea’s justice system were among 32 sacked by Australia’s foreign aid agency for fraud or for botching projects, new figures show.
According to the West Australian newspaper, the past five years, AusAID has torn up the contracts of two organisations delivering programmes.
The rip-offs and bungling cost taxpayers more than A$200,000.
Figures published in Hansard in response to questions from shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop showed that most of the sackings occurred in PNG, Fiji and Timor-Leste.
And the problems were not just with low-level staff such as clerks. Managers were among those who lost their jobs.
The single biggest sacking happened in Timor-Leste, where nine people working on a nutrition and community health project had their contracts shredded in 2008.
Five staff members engaged on a HIV/AIDS programme in Zimbabwe were sacked in 2007 and 2008.
The law and justice programme in PNG had a clerical staff member sacked in 2006, with another local staff member terminated a year later.
One person hired for the “electoral support programme” in PNG resigned in 2008 after being told his contract would be torn up.
An AusAID spokeswoman said the cases of fraud or mismanagement cost taxpayers A$218,500, with
almost A$171,000 recovered so far.
She said AusAID’s fraud controls were effective, with “99.998% of its administered funds” going to intended recipients.
Regular audits were conducted of contractors, while police were called in when Australian law had been breached, she said.
Companies and non-government organisations blacklisted for fraud were banned from bidding for new contracts.
“AusAID has a zero tolerance policy towards fraud in the aid programme,” the spokeswoman said.
She said the organisation investigated all reports, sought to recover money, prosecuted offenders and ensured probity. – The West Austrailan