We bring
you more news from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) who assess the efficacy of, amongst other things, the outcomes of government awarded grants.
While you may still be coming to terms with the ineffective near-billion dollars spent on ethanol over the last decade, here’s another little scoop for you.
The Clean Technology Investment Program was allocated $800 million to “assist manufacturers to invest in energy-efficient capital equipment and low-emissions technologies, processes and products”.
The ANAO appraised the giving of grants unfavourably…and that’s being kind. It stated ” the approach that was taken to assessing applications was not sufficiently focussed on maximising program objectives and treating applicants equitably”
Great! So $800 million dollars of public money was handed out irresponsibly, incoherently and without equal consideration.
The audit continued: “As a result, it was common for funding to be approved for projects that did not have high expectations as to the extent of the reduction in carbon emissions intensity they would deliver”.
The upside of these audits is that the end result should be a more efficient expenditure of public money…We live in hope!
Alex Russell
