Revealed: Phil Gaetjens’ scathing sports rort report
Senator McKenzie says she stands by the community grant decisions she made as sports minister. Photo: AAP
A secret government report into the sports rorts scandal has slammed the decision-making process behind the controversial $100 million grant scheme.
The investigation by former Prime Minister and Cabinet department secretary Phil Gaetjens found there were significant shortcomings by Coalition senator Bridget McKenzie in awarding a community sporting grant to a gun club to which she belonged.
Mr Gaetjens said there was an “actual conflict of interest” for Senator McKenzie in the grant.
Documents released under freedom of information late on Monday revealed Mr Gaetjens also said there was a lack of transparency for other applicants for the sporting grants about how the money would be allocated.
“This lack of transparency, coupled with the significant divergences between projects recommended by Sport Australia and those approved by the minister, has given rise to concerns about the decision making,” the report said.
“Those submitting grant funding applications had, in my view, a right to more fully understand the basis on which the funding decisions were being made.”
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The Gaetjens investigation was launched following a damning Auditor-General’s report that found the office of Senator McKenzie, a former sports minister, overlooked applications of merit in favour of those in marginal electorates.
Despite this, Mr Gaetjens said in the investigation there was no evidence of pork barrelling.
“I can find no basis for the suggestion that political considerations were the primary determining factor in the minister’s decision to approve the grants,” the report said.
The investigation did find Senator McKenzie breached ministerial standards by failing to declare she was a member of the Wangaratta Clay Target Club, which received a grant of $36,000.
Senator McKenzie resigned from cabinet in early 2020, the day after Mr Gaetjens finished the investigation.
Although a summary of the Gaetjens investigation into sports rorts was published at the time, the full report was not released due to it being cited as cabinet in confidence.
However, the investigation was released under freedom of information, after the FOI commissioner ordered the Prime Minister’s department to hand over the full document.
The investigation was also scathing of the gaps between the large number of grants approved and the number that weren’t in the list of recommended projects by Sports Australia.
In 2020, Australian National Audit Office executive director Brian Boyd told Senate estimates that about 43 per cent of the grants awarded went to groups that were not eligible.
“I cannot reconcile such large variations in the final approval results compared to recommendations based on the published assessment criteria with the minister’s view that the published assessment criteria were the “key decision factor”, the report said.
“I find that other factors had a material impact on the minister’s final approvals being different from Sport Australia’s own recommendations.”
The investigation also noted there was no evidence to support the grants being applied systematically.
“Where the minister was the final approver and approvals departed materially from official recommendations … I am concerned there is no evidence of the reasons that supported the minister’s final approvals,” the report said.
However, Mr Gaetjens said Senator McKenzie did not breach ministerial standards by using discretionary powers as a minister.
However, he found Senator McKenzie had an obligation to disclose her membership of the gun club.
-with AAP
