Department of Planning fund has $10.6 million ‘black hole’

PLANNING bureaucrats have “lost” millions of dollars from a fund meant to pay for public amenities in Western Sydney.

The planning department had no idea who signed off on a multimillion-dollar payment to Blacktown Council because the signature was illegible.

• NSW Government squanders $600K on self-help books
• Slush fund so useless that results are no longer published

BUNGLING bureaucrats have “lost” millions of dollars from a fund meant to pay for public amenities.

The Department of Planning’s Special Infrastructure Contributions Assessment Fund — money collected from developers for public roads, healthcare, schools and parks — has a $10.6 million black hole ­because of a lack of oversight.

Missing revenue from the $475 million fund relates to 14 major ­developments in Camden, Liverpool, Campbelltown, Blacktown and The Hills council areas.

The department has also lost $2 million of a $2.3 million payment made in 2015 by developer Stockland.

A separate Ernst and Young report compiled for the department warns communities could lose out as the fund grows five-fold by the middle of next year.

The problem centres around the department’s in-house assessment system, known as “Developer Contributions v2.0”.

The report found the “bespoke” system is open to abuse.

“There is no control stopping a team member from rerouting or performing their own peer review of the assessment calculation and ­assessment approval,” the June 2017 report said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

“While manual checks are performed, these process inconsistencies increase the risk of incorrect and fraudulent notice of assessments and certificate of payments being issued undetected.”

The report found the department had no idea who signed off on a multimillion-dollar payment to Blacktown Council in June 29, 2016, because the signature was illegible.

Deputy opposition leader Michael Daley called on the government to find where all the money has gone.

The department has also lost $2 million of a $2.3 million payment made in 2015 by developer Stockland, according to the documents.

A Stockland spokeswoman confirmed their infrastructure payments are “up to date and fully paid”.

Deputy opposition leader Michael Daley called on the government to find where all the money has gone.

A department spokesman said: “We will continue to improve and refine processes where necessary. While 15 approvals were incorrectly levied by councils, most of those have now been resolved by working with developers and councils.”