The Australian National Audit Office report on the NRM regional delivery model has now been released.
See:
http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/2007-08_Audit_Report_21.pdf
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Govt to review environmental program after critical audit
Posted on ABC website Thu Feb 7, 2008 6:46pm AEDT
http://www.abc.net.au/news
The Federal Government will review a $3.5 billion environmental protection program set up by the former Coalition government.
The Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality were initiated to fund environmental projects like river bank revegetation and weed eradication.
An audit of the funds was critical of the lack of information showing what the projects had achieved.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the audit confirmed fears he raised while in Opposition.
The Federal Government will discuss changes to the program, but says the $2 billion allocated for future years is not in jeopardy.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says the Federal Government needs to find out what has already been done before the third round of Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funding is sent out.
"They need to be reviewing the effectiveness of NHT 2 but I certainly don't think that they should be holding up delivering funds to the regional groups that are out there doing very effective work on the ground," she said.
A-G slams ineffective heritage program
The Australian
February 08, 2008 08:55am AEDT
Siobhain Ryan | February 08, 2008
THERE was no way of knowing whether $1 billion pumped into local environmental projects had achieved anything, the Auditor-General said yesterday.
Ian McPhee also warned it could take 200 years at the current rate of progress to achieve some of the goals of the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity.
His comments came in an Australian National Audit Office report released yesterday.
The report marks the fourth time the ANAO has criticised inadequate targets and reporting for the federal Natural Heritage Trust environment fund, which has cost taxpayers $2.8billion since 1996.
It follows an explosive ANAO critique last November of the commonwealth's Regional Partnerships Program, another grants-based scheme that focused strongly on funding projects in rural areas.
The Natural Heritage Trust was the Howard government's flagship environment program, mobilising volunteers to take part in projects such as replanting bush, trapping and fencing out feral animals, digging up weeds, and mapping threatened species.
"Overall the ANAO considers the information reported in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Natural Heritage Trust annual reports has been insufficient to make an informed judgment as to the progress of the programs," it said.
"There is little evidence as yet that the programs are adequately achieving the anticipated national outcomes."
Much of the money was distributed through 56 regional bodies, after deals were signed with each state. Thirteen of those bodies were pushed near insolvency, some forced to lay off staff because of delays in finalising the bilateral agreements. But once funded, they still struggled to measure the worth of projects because of a lack of data and guidance.
The ANAO noted that when the bodies did set targets for specific projects, they were often far too modest.
"This suggests that the achievement of some outcomes is going to be a long-term process - potentially over 200 years at current progress," it said.
The report also took a swipe at state and territory governments that had signed up to the trust, accusing them of breaching their individual pacts with the commonwealth by retaining unspent money, not disclosing interest earned on those funds, and failing to provide an audit trail for money spent.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the findings came as no surprise.
"We identified issues of measuring value for money, overly complex administrative arrangements and the need for a smooth transition to future arrangements - all confirmed in the audit," she said.
The spokeswoman did not say how the Rudd Government would improve the trust's operation.
Copyright 2008 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT +11).
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au