Greg Combet attempts to justify Department of Innovation financial mismanagement in the same way he justifies Juanita Philip's travels.
As Minister For Climate Change,and Industry and Innovation Combet continues to display the same disregard for financial management that he did at Defense (see story below).
Combet was recently queried about a three year contract his Department of Industry and Innovation awarded late last year for the cleaning of the National Measurement Institute and Australian Astronomical Organisation's new offices and laboratories in Ryde. The NMI's labs are highly secure given its responsibility for legal metrology. As well, it provides testing services to the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).
Regardless of the highly technical nature of the work involved, the contract was awarded a company with no prior experience in the cleaning of laboratories.
Within a month of the contract commencing Combet's Department requested a variation of that contract which resulted in a reduction of the cost to the supplier of approximately $ 105,000 to $ $ 120,000 over the term of the contract.
Given that the contract is valued at $ $847,142, the reduction represents an addition to the supplier's gross margin of 12%-14%.
Given that cleaning contracts provide margins of between 2%-5% at best, the addition to the supplier's margin is highly significant.
Combet has been asked in emails why his Department and he did not seek a variation in contract value. The response received from both the Department and Combet's office read:
Combet was recently queried about a three year contract his Department of Industry and Innovation awarded late last year for the cleaning of the National Measurement Institute and Australian Astronomical Organisation's new offices and laboratories in Ryde. The NMI's labs are highly secure given its responsibility for legal metrology. As well, it provides testing services to the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).
Regardless of the highly technical nature of the work involved, the contract was awarded a company with no prior experience in the cleaning of laboratories.
Within a month of the contract commencing Combet's Department requested a variation of that contract which resulted in a reduction of the cost to the supplier of approximately $ 105,000 to $ $ 120,000 over the term of the contract.
Given that the contract is valued at $ $847,142, the reduction represents an addition to the supplier's gross margin of 12%-14%.
Given that cleaning contracts provide margins of between 2%-5% at best, the addition to the supplier's margin is highly significant.
Combet has been asked in emails why his Department and he did not seek a variation in contract value. The response received from both the Department and Combet's office read:
· Following a review of the cleaning services at the Department’s premises at 105 Delhi Rd, North Ryde, the Department agreed a variation of the cleaning contract with Solution Cleaning Services which varied the hours in which work was to be performed. The variation did not result in any change to the contract value. The contract was awarded after an open tender process.
· According to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, Agencies must report contracts and amendments on AusTender within 42 days of entering into (or amending) a contract if they are valued at or above the reporting threshold.
Combet and his Department have refused to say why a variation of the contract value had not been sought. Both have been determined to evade the question, and instead chosen to repeat the above , parrot-like.Combet has been reminded that the Guidelines he quotes are relevant to contract procurement and not management, but this has been met with no response. He has been informed that the relevant guidelines are those provided by the Australian National Audit Office, but again, silence.
It does seem that this is Combet's standard operating procedure when confronted with questions of financial mismanagement. As Steve Lewis reports in today's Daily Telegraph:
CLIMATE Change Minister Greg Combet took his ABC newsreader partner Juanita Phillips on a first-class visit to Europe, amid signs of an increase in global travel by Gillard Government frontbenchers.
The taxpayer-funded trip earlier this month included visits to Paris, Brussels and Berlin where Mr Combet - touted as a future Labor leader - delivered a keynote address to the "Towards a Global Carbon Market" conference.
Mr Combet said the trip met ministerial rules for travelling with spouses. These require the minister's partner to have an "official program of engagements".
He declined to confirm to News Limited what program Ms Phillips - who presents the ABC's flagship 7pm television news service in Sydney - undertook.
The minister also would not disclose why they flew first class.
The guidelines state "ministers and their spouses should travel business class" when travelling overseas, but they may have received a free upgrade.
A first-class airfare to Paris costs between $12,000-15,000 and the carbon footprint - around 5 tonnes of CO2 - is enough to power a small car for a year.
"Approval for Minister Combet's and Ms Phillips's overseas visit on official business was in accord with the guidelines relating to such visits," his spokesman said. "Any suggestion to the contrary would be wrong and misleading."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is required to tick off on all overseas travel by her front bench. Asked about Mr Combet and Ms Phillips' trip, a spokesman said: "All overseas ministerial travel is approved in accordance with the guidelines."
Readers will note that in both instances Combet attempts to hide behind "the Guidelines" , regardless of their relevance to the case.
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