‘Scathing’ report reveals conflicts of interest not assessed in $37m grants scheme

An auditor-general’s report into a NSW government Local Small Commitments Allocation grants scheme reveals the conflicts of interest of Labor candidates weren’t properly assessed.

NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

An inquiry into the Labor government’s controversial community grants scheme has found multiple conflict of interest declarations were not properly assessed before grants were approved from the $37.2 million fund.

The findings of the auditor-general’s report on the integrity of Labor’s Local Small Commitments Allocation (LSCA) scheme were released on Thursday morning.

The grant scheme was announced by Labor in the lead up to the 2023 NSW election, allowing each Labor MP and candidate to nominate projects across all electorates for up to $400,000 worth of funding. Some of the projects included upgrades to community centres and parks, as well as money towards certain community groups.

A parliamentary inquiry into the scheme and auditor-general’s audit were established after accusations of pork-barrelling and conflict of interest breaches.

The AG’s report found that while the grants scheme had complied “with most of the requirements” of state grant guidelines, only 17 out of 93 Labor electoral candidates had their conflict of interest declarations reviewed.

Of the 17 candidates reviewed, there were 60 declared conflicts of interest for 118 individual grants – of which two were not approved.

Camden MP Sally Quinnell, disclosed her conflict of interest and it was determined her project could proceed as she would receive no personal benefit. Picture: Supplied

It has previously been revealed that a number of Labor candidates and MPs awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to organisations they were personally involved with and received campaigning support from some of these groups.

One instance included Camden MP Sally Quinnell, who awarded $75,000 to Camden Musical Society, an organisation she co-founded. Ms Quinnell disclosed her conflict of interest and it was determined the project could proceed as she would receive no personal benefit from the grant.

The report found the Program Office, which was responsible for assessing the grants applications, only received “verbal confirmation” that adequate conflicts of interest procedures were being followed by NSW Labor, but was not provided with documentation supporting this.

Assessment panel members in the programs office, whose job was to determine projects should get funding under the scheme were also required to provide conflict of interest declarations.

The report found that there were 54 panel member declarations from 644 approved projects “where moderate risk declared conflicts were not provided to the probity member for review”.

Shadow special minister for state, Chris Rath called on Premier Chris Minns to immediately perform conflict of interest reviews into all 93 candidates, especially those who were not reviewed at the time.

“The Auditor-general’s report is clear and scathing,” he said.

“The Premier must immediately instruct his department to complete conflict of interest checks on all 93 Labor candidates.

“The best time to do this would have been two years ago. The second best time is today.”

Special Minister of State John Graham has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as ‘Scathing’ report reveals conflicts of interest not assessed in $37m grants scheme