A last-minute decision to hand $75,000 in ratepayers’ money to a religious organisation directly linked to a Kingston councillor has raised integrity concerns from other council members.
The City of Kingston Council has hit back at any suggestion of wrongdoing, arguing late changes to grant funding – which saw the organisation given money against recommendations – were within the rules.
Councillor Hadi Saab.Credit: Paul Jeffers
But two Labor-aligned councillors say the decision to hand three years of funding to the Druze Community Charity of Victoria for a festival should be examined because fellow councillor Hadi Saab is a member of its executive committee.
Meeting agenda documents show the organisation sought a $25,000 grant for one year. But the panel knocked it back because the application, while “strong”, did not align with grant guidelines as it was not an already established festival.
“In addition, the Assessment Panel considered the strong financial position of this organisation relative to other applicant organisations,” the public council agenda says.
But councillors Georgina Oxley and David Eden told the June 24 meeting that just before the council was due to meet, amendments requiring last-minute changes to grant funding were handed to the councillor group as they walked into the chamber on the night.
Kingston councillors Georgina Oxley and David Eden.Credit: Joe Armao
The amendments made a number of changes, including the awarding of three years’ worth of $25,000 grants for the Druze festival.
Saab – who is also Labor aligned – declared a conflict of interest and left the room for the vote awarding the pool of grants, including the Druze funding.
But Eden queried why the group was put back on the funding list after the independent panel had knocked it back and the councillor group had not viewed the applications.
“I would have thought from a probity perspective, it would have been appropriate before committing the ratepayer to $75,000 ... to have at least circulated or shared an application for the community group [before the meeting],” Eden said. “This is a lot of money.”
Councillor Hadi Saab addresses Kingston council during the June meeting.Credit: Kingston Council
“I’m a bit perplexed as to ... some of these recommendations are coming from, when the applications haven’t even been reviewed by [councillors],” Oxley said.
All councillors in the chamber for the vote on the funding involving the Druze organisation voted in favour, except Oxley and Eden, who are a married couple.
A motion to have the whole grants process – including the changes – referred to the Local Government Inspectorate and the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office was voted down six to two. Only Oxley and Eden voted in favour.
“I really hope someone sends it to [the Auditor-General’s Office], someone sends it to the [Local Government] Inspectorate to have a look at so that we can review our processes,” Oxley said.
A spokeswoman for the Local Government Inspectorate said investigations were treated with the strictest confidence and that it was “unable to share any details of an investigation, ongoing or otherwise, with the media”.
Saab is a volunteer executive committee member of Druze Community Charity of Victoria, which is based outside Kingston in nearby Keysborough. The Druze are a religious group who primarily reside in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
The organisation is not a registered charity but an incorporated association of 600 members, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria records.
Saab said he had recused himself from any involvement in the grant process. “I can assure the community that I was very upfront about my connection with the Druze Community Charity of Victoria, and therefore did not take part at any stage of the application process,” he told The Age.
City of Kingston chambers in Cheltenham.Credit: Penny Stephens
“When I was aware the religious community organisation was making a submission I let the mayor, our governance team, the CEO and the general manager know that I will be declaring a conflict of interest when this eventually comes back to council.”
Saab said that while the organisation was based just outside of Kingston’s borders, “it provides support and a real sense of connection for many in Kingston where a majority of the members live or own/run businesses”.
Mayor Jenna Davey-Burns said the matter did not need to be referred to integrity agencies because they were in line with the Victorian Auditor General’s Office advice, given after a major 2022 report into fraud risks in council grants.
“I am extremely disappointed that the integrity of our council has been called into question,” she said in a statement. “The alternate motion for the matter was prepared in consultation with officers and distributed to all councillors prior to the meeting as commonly occurs.”
Davey-Burns said the grants would be dispersed in coming months.
Councillor Tracey Davies, who put the motion to include funding to the organisation, said she believed that knocking back the Druze application because of their “strong financial position” was unfair because it was not within council policies.
“We don’t means test these applications,” she said. “We actually don’t know just because someone has a lot of money in their bank, whether that means they’re not saving for something.”
But Eden argued other groups who were not recommended for funding on the same basis didn’t also get retroactively added back in by councillors.
Two other organisations were also awarded funding in the same pool against councillor recommendations – $10,000 to the Melbourne Shwetambar Jain Sangh Inc and $12,000 to the Aspendale Gardens Residents Association.
No councillors declared a conflict of interest on the former, but councillor Tamsin Bearsley declared a conflict on the latter as a resident of Aspendale Gardens and left the chamber for the vote.
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