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4 People Face Charges in Australia Toner scandal
Toner cartridges were routinely sold to public servants at two to three times the market price.
FOUR public servants have been referred to police on allegations of having corruptly spent taxpayer money on printer cartridges for gifts in return.The Advertiser understands the number of people facing charges is likely to rise as the State Government nears a release of the results of a ministerial inquiry.
A Procurement Working Group established by Finance Minister Michael O’Brien in November is receiving reports from individual departments and four staff have been referred for charges.
However, final reports are pending from education and health – known to be involved.
An Environment and Natural Resources Department officer is also the subject of an internal investigation.
Mr O’Brien said the excess cartridges acquired from the purchases, understood to be in the thousands, would be "distributed and utilised" across all Government departments to limit waste.
Opposition finance spokesman Rob Lucas said revelations yesterday that the Government knew of the alleged corruption long before it became public and failed to clamp down showed "a massive cover-up".
In November, Mr O’Brien revealed 41 agencies were implicated and expenses of $921,333 detected.
Under criminal law, abusing office to gain a benefit can earn seven years in prison.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/printer-kickbacks-ran-on-during-inquiry/story-e6frea83-1226292665283
Cartridge kickbacks weren’t stopped
Toner cartridges were routinely sold to public servants at two to three times the market price.PUBLIC servants continued to receive kickbacks for buying office supplies months after the alarm was first raised with the State Government.
The results of an analysis, obtained by The Advertiser, shows the West Australian Crime and Corruption Commission contacted the SA Government in May 2010 to raise concerns about the scheme.
The WA inquiry had found widespread corruption in that state.
Public servants used taxpayers’ money to buy overpriced printer cartridges and received electronic goods and shopping vouchers in return.
It has since been confirmed at least 41 Government agencies spent $1 million with the implicated companies.
Local public servants have been referred to police and a ministerial staffer is under investigation.
Others who dealt with the companies are being more closely examined to determine if they accepted gifts.
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However, it also can be revealed that public servants continued to buy products from the suspect companies until as recently as January this year.
That came amid frequent media reports of the alleged graft, a series of revelations in State Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee, and a high-level inquiry with ministerial oversight.
The analysis, by Ernst & Young, shows the initial SA response to WA’s May 2010 warnings was disorganised and "some public authorities appear to have missed an opportunity to detect and prevent similar purchases".
It also shows an effective government-wide investigation was not launched until last September, almost 18 months after the WA warning and a year after irregularities were detected by SA’s Shared Services department.
Finance Minister Michael O’Brien yesterday conceded at least one public servant had continued buying from the companies, making two purchases in November 2011 and one this January.
He said those incidents had since been referred to the Government Investigations Unit.
The running total of taxpayer money spent with the companies and public servants involved is unknown. That has prompted Opposition claims of a determined cover-up aimed at avoiding embarrassment to ministers.
The Ernst & Young analysis shows poor communication hampered attempts to clamp down on alleged graft. It reveals the State Procurement Board wrote to government agencies in May 2010 relaying concerns raised by the WA inquiry but said in terms: "I bring this matter to your attention for your agency’s information."
The analysis found: "There appears to have been a lack of clarity about which part of government should take ownership of the response that had broader procurement and financial control implications. It appears some agencies did not fully address the issues raised in the correspondence to them in a timely manner as the analysed files suggest purchases from the implicated companies continued.
"Individual public authorities were left to determine what action, if any, was to be taken and public authorities reacted to the correspondence differently.
"The system of controls within some public authorities around the procurement process was either non-existent or was breached."
The analysis, dated November 18, 2011, was conducted for Department of Premier and Cabinet chief executive Jim Hallion, who is also chairing a Procurement Working Group investigation into the affair.
The analysis says Mr O’Brien’s establishment of the Procurement Working Group on November 1, 2011 led to "a number of critical and appropriate decisions aimed at co-ordinating a cross-government approach".
Mr O’Brien yesterday said the Government had adopted recommendations in the report including implementation of whole-of-government contracts for stationery purchases.
"Agencies were advised to be alert for purchases from particular companies, but the companies frequently changed their business names," he said.
"Shared Services then undertook a company search based on common directors, which provided a thorough overview and led to stricter purchasing controls."
Opposition finance spokesman Rob Lucas said: "This is symptomatic of a Government that wants to keep secret anything which is a potential embarrassment and the fact they’ve kept it secret for 18 months until it was publicly revealed is just a further indication that they haven’t learnt the lesson."
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