Great Barrier Reef Foundation grant program only ‘partially effective’

A controversial $443m Great Barrier Reef grant program has distributed funds without proper contracts or selection processes, the auditor general has found.

A controversial $443m Great Barrier Reef grant program being run by a small charity has been handing out funds without proper contracts or selection processes, the auditor-general has found.

The not-for-profit Great Barrier Reef Foundation was handed $443m of taxpayer dollars in 2018 by the federal government, so that the charity could raise money from the private sector to attract further investment in reef restorations.

The Commonwealth auditor-general, in its latest report, deemed the grant program only “partially effective”.

Overall, the foundation’s use of grants and procurements was “appropriate”, but the Auditor-General found the GBRF had also at times awarded grants without specifying selection criteria.

The money handed to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation was to attract further investment in restoring the reef.

It was also revealed that in some cases, the GBRF had awarded grants without written contracts and the “process” for procurements worth up to $5000 was to get a “verbal quote”.

The foundation released an investment strategy in October 2018 that set a target of $357m to be raised over five years, bringing the total reef investment to $800m.

The auditor-general found there was no way to track the progress of this and measure the foundation’s success.

The GBRF said it had raised $53.6m as of December 2020, about 15 per cent of its $357m target.

But the foundation has no guarantee they will ever receive a third of the money raised, as the grant recipients are under no contractual obligation to hand over the coin.

Just $5.5m is in the foundation’s hands, the auditor general found.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said the report proved the government’s “catastrophic failure” to protect the reef.

“The Liberal National Government notoriously awarded almost half-a-billion dollars in public money to a tiny, ill-equipped, hand-picked foundation, without a tender,” she said.

“This dodgy backroom deal was based on a falsehood, riddled with rorts and is failing to achieve what is required to secure the future of the Reef.”

The auditor-general made eight recommendations, including for the foundation to ensure a written contract is in place before it gives away grants, for the grant allocation process to be more open and transparent, and for the foundation and the Environment Department to ensure a bank deed is in place before money is invested with any bank.

The foundation and the Department agreed to all recommendations that applied to them.