Mr DUNHAM - 2003-02-18
The so-called Bansemer report into the Department of Health and Community Services reveals that 150 extra staff were employed by the department in the latter half of the year 2001-02, without any appropriation for their wages and salaries. Minister, when did you find out about this, and isn’t it illegal to expend monies not approved and/or not appropriated?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I found out about this through the review working documents which I received in November. I can tell you I was absolutely furious when I heard about this. These were people who were taken on without any authorisation whatsoever. Neither the acting CEO nor myself knew about it. Delegations have now been withdrawn.. There was no approval for these positions. It is a very serious issue. It also appears that this is something that has been happening for many years.
It appears that the lack of control in management in the department, which is something that we have inherited, has also meant that individual areas of the department seemed to not be able to understand that you could not employ staff unless there was a budget next to it. This is a pretty serious matter, and something which, as soon as we heard about, was immediately stopped; delegations were withdrawn. This will never happen again. It is a very serious matter. It is something which my new CEO has already made very clear that management have to come in on budget - they have to come in on budget.
It just amazes me, every year for the last decade, there was a big blow-out in the CLP’s budget. The department never had any idea what their budget was going to be, because there was this boom and bust, boom and bust, boom and bust, the whole time. The department had no idea what to work for in their budget. Then, we come along, see big issues going on in the whole department. We are sorting it out. We are very pleased over here that we have actually found out what the problems are and we are sorting them out. The kinds of practices which have happened in the past will never happen again.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I found out about this through the review working documents which I received in November. I can tell you I was absolutely furious when I heard about this. These were people who were taken on without any authorisation whatsoever. Neither the acting CEO nor myself knew about it. Delegations have now been withdrawn.. There was no approval for these positions. It is a very serious issue. It also appears that this is something that has been happening for many years.
It appears that the lack of control in management in the department, which is something that we have inherited, has also meant that individual areas of the department seemed to not be able to understand that you could not employ staff unless there was a budget next to it. This is a pretty serious matter, and something which, as soon as we heard about, was immediately stopped; delegations were withdrawn. This will never happen again. It is a very serious matter. It is something which my new CEO has already made very clear that management have to come in on budget - they have to come in on budget.
It just amazes me, every year for the last decade, there was a big blow-out in the CLP’s budget. The department never had any idea what their budget was going to be, because there was this boom and bust, boom and bust, boom and bust, the whole time. The department had no idea what to work for in their budget. Then, we come along, see big issues going on in the whole department. We are sorting it out. We are very pleased over here that we have actually found out what the problems are and we are sorting them out. The kinds of practices which have happened in the past will never happen again.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016