South Australia’s Auditor-General denied access to sports grant documents

South Australia’s Auditor-General has taken the rare step of going public with concerns over the allocation of $133m in sports grants amid claims of pork-barrelling.

The Malinauskas government is denying there is anything ­suspicious about $133m in sports grants. Pictured: South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

South Australia’s Auditor-General has taken the rare step of going public with concerns over the allocation of $133m in sports grants by the Malinauskas government amid opposition claims of pork-barrelling.

The government insists the grants were all properly allocated after being promised by Labor in opposition before its landslide win at this year’s March election.

Auditor-General Andrew Richardson told The Australian he was unable to get clarity around how the money was dispersed because the government was withholding documents on the basis of cabinet confidentiality. That differed from past practices under the former Marshall Liberal government, when those documents were almost always made available for auditing.

The Malinauskas government is denying there is anything ­suspicious about the payments, with a spokesperson saying the Auditor-General in evidence to the economic and finance committee had “confirmed the payments were legally expended”.

Mr Richardson responded to a series of questions by The Australian in which he outlined several concerns. He described the new government’s disbursement of the $133m in grants as “outside of the usual public sector framework”.

“The decisions about who was to receive funds and the amount they were to receive, were made by the Labor Party as a candidate party in the lead-up to the March 2022 election,” Mr Richardson said. “These processes were not performed by public servants. Public servants must follow a public sector framework of legislation and adopted government policies and procedures when spending public money. The decisions conducted by the Labor Party were outside of the usual public sector framework.”

Mr Richardson was also candid in questioning why the Malinauskas government was taking a different approach to the release of cabinet documents than its predecessor.

The release of cabinet documents in South Australia is governed by what’s known as “Premier’s Circular PC047: Disclosure of Cabinet documents to investigative agencies”.

“Under the policy, the ­Auditor-General may request a cabinet submission required for the proper exercise of the Auditor-General’s statutory functions,” Mr Richardson said.

“Requests are subject to the approval of the Premier. What has changed so far is that the previous government approved access to most requests we made for cabinet documents under PC047. To date, the current government has denied access to the documents we requested. This is a practical concern for the auditor because in South Australia, longstanding convention and practice is that cabinet makes decisions authorising many significant financial transactions.”

Mr Richardson also took aim at the government over the impact of its enforced “efficiency dividend”, a mandated cost-saving measure applying to every government department. He said the ability of his office to audit government agencies would be undermined by the savings.

The government said it would consider the budget issues raised by Mr Richardson, but stood by its handling of the grants.

“This is a government which unashamedly delivers on its ­election commitments,” the spokesperson said. “Our election commitments were endorsed by the people of South Australia at the last state election. South Australians voted for these projects and we are delivering.

“Regarding the release of cabinet documents, the government operates on exactly the same framework as its predecessor. The government values deeply the importance of cabinet solidarity and confidentiality. The only people in South Australia who are entitled to cabinet documents are members of the cabinet themselves.”

Opposition Treasury spokesman Matt Cowdrey rubbished the government’s explanation.

“The suspicious behaviour of the Malinauskas Labor government to keep these documents secret smells fishy,” he said.