Ex-NSW leader Berejiklian slammed in report claiming she gave majority of $252m fund to her voters

The NSW government has been slammed over a $252million fund the state’s auditor claims gave 96 per cent of its grants to Coalition-held electorates.

The assessment and approval process for the Stronger Communities Fund in the build-up to the 2019 state election ‘lacked integrity’, the report by the NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford found. 

Ms Crawford said ex-NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her deputy John Barilaro chose most of the projects which benefited from the fund.

The guidelines designed for the fund by the then-Office of Local Government were ‘deficient’ and the state’s ministers generally ignored them, the auditor-general said. 

Ex-NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian pictured with her Deputy Premier John Barilaro. She has been criticised by the state’s auditor over her role in a $252million fund it claims gave 96 per cent of its grants to Coalition-held electorates

‘For the 22 councils where funding allocations were determined by the former premier and deputy premier, the only record of their approval is a series of emails from their staff,’ she wrote in the report.

In response to the findings, the NSW government said it agreed the guidelines were  ‘not best practice’.

‘[The approval process] could have been improved in a number of respects – including by clearly identifying the decision-maker and setting out the process for the selection and assessment of projects against specified criteria,’ Department of Planning and Environment secretary Mick Cassel said.  

In November, Mr Perrottet tried to draw a line in the sand on the scandal, ordering a review into how government grant schemes were distributed, saying it was important there was public confidence to the expenditure of taxpayer funds.

NSW Labor has renewed calls for an overhaul of how government grants are distributed after the analysis was published.

Labor leader Chris Minns said the premier needs to commit to an overhaul of the way the government distributes funds to community projects.

‘Again we have another example of this government using funds like it’s their own piggy bank,’ he said on Tuesday.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet last year ordered a review into how government grant schemes were distributed

‘There would be thousands of deserving community projects that have missed out on funding, simply because they live in the wrong area.

‘It’s time to put public confidence back into the grants process in NSW.’

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the fund was an ‘obscene abuse of public funds for partisan advantage’.

He is calling on the premier to fix the scheme when parliament returns next week.

‘This cannot wait for another report and yet more delay while public money is showered on the coalition’s political and corporate mates,’ Mr Shoebridge said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian with John Barilaro in May 2021. The state auditor said Ms Berejiklian and Mr Barilaro chose most of the projects which benefited from the fund

In November, the NSW Upper House passed a Labor private member’s bill designed to ensure more transparency around the distribution of government grants.

The bill would require ministers to spell out in writing their reasons for departing from bureaucrats’ recommendations about how grant funds should be handed out and stipulates a minister wouldn’t be able to issue a grant before they were given relevant information from their department.

It would also give the auditor-general stronger powers to monitor whether the government is adhering to guidelines that say how grants should be administered.

At the time, Mr Perrottet said he would not support the bill, dismissing it as a ‘stunt’.