24 AUGUST 2005
AUDITOR GENERAL FINDS COMPENSATION PROCESS FOR BUSINESSES EXITING THE NATIVE
TIMBER INDUSTRY FLAWED
Auditor General Des Pearson has expressed his disquiet over the management of the $74 million Business Exit Assistance (BEA) program that was integral to the Government’s ‘Protection of Old Growth Forests’ policy that saw the cessation of logging in 99% of WA’s remaining old-growth forests in 2001.
Mr Pearson’s concerns are outlined in a report, tabled in Parliament today, that is laced with identified ‘anomalies’ and examples of where the compensation process fell short of acceptable standards in relation to establishing the validity of payments, consistency in assessing applications for assistance, and in the transparency of the process.
The Departments of Industry and Resources (DOIR) and Education and Training (DET) were charged with implementing the two key funding programs that gave effect to the Protection of Old Growth Forests policy.
DOIR had responsibility for managing the BEA program of distributing $74million in assistance to businesses exiting the native timber industry and DET managed the $27.3 million Workers Assistance Program (WAP) to provide workers with redundancy top-up payments and assistance for training and obtaining new employment.
While WAP was satisfactorily administered overall, BEA was not, said Mr Pearson.
“There were major shortcomings in the BEA process and documentation,” he states.
“In consequence the level of assurance Parliament and the community normally expects when public funds are spent is not available.”
Overall, Mr Pearson finds that BEA was not based on reliable information or consistent assessments, the financial information submitted did not meet program guidelines, anomalies in BEA assessments were not identified, the appeals process was not applied on a consistent basis, processing of applications was protracted, and the eligibility criteria did not fully reflect Government policy.
“In particular, there is inadequate assurance that BEA has been allocated according to the program guidelines and that consistency and fairness was achieved,” he says.
“The clear lesson is that particular attention is required to make sure that guidelines adopted are relevant and equally important they are consistently applied.
“While it is now problematic for DOIR to remedy the situation, it is important that such shortcomings be avoided in future.”
Also tabled in Parliament today was Mr Pearson’s report on the Protection of Critical Infrastructure Control Systems, which examined the steps currently being taken to protect the computer systems that drive WA’s essential services – such as those that control power grids, gas and oil distribution pipelines, water treatment and distribution systems and flood control dams.
The systems at three key government agencies were assessed in relation to risk and IT security management.
Also examined was the role of the Security Planning Coordination Unit (SPCU) of the Department of Premier and Cabinet in the coordination of the implementation of an accepted nationally consistent approach to the protection of critical infrastructure within WA.
Key findings in the report include:
- The SPCU has completed a preliminary identification and assessment of National and State critical infrastructure assets and is coordinating various security activities; the SPCU is being integrated into a new and larger emergency management group incorporating the State Crisis Centre.
- In general, control systems have become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attack due to their connection to corporate networks, their improved user friendliness and the increased sophistication of hackers, therefore effective risk management is critical.
- Aspects of the risk management practices at the three agencies are good – but some improvements are needed, such as the preparation of risk assessments at two agencies and all three agencies to rank cyber threats to infrastructure control systems in the high level risk category.
- Security management practices and system vulnerabilities in the three agencies also need to be addressed.
Ends/.
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