An audit of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Partnership has found its design and early delivery to have been partially effective.
The audit found that the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) made a $443.3 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to deliver the Reef Trust Partnership (RTP).
The RTP was to achieve significant, measureable improvement in the health of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
The audit found that as of March this year, the $443.3 million grant to the Foundation was the largest Australian Government grant that had been reported on the Department of Finance’s GrantConnect website.
Auditor-General, Grant Hehir said that given the strong parliamentary and public interest in the partnership, the audit was undertaken to examine the implementation of the partnership.
He said the audit found grant money had been appropriately invested with the Foundation reporting to have raised $53.6 million to December 2020, of which the majority was from in-kind contributions.
“While competitive selection processes have been employed most of the time when awarding grant funding, there has been insufficient use of open and competitive approaches for procurements,” Mr Hehir said.
He made seven recommendations addressing bank deeds, fundraising, subcontracting the delivery of reef protection projects and administration costs.
The Foundation agreed to all recommendations.
The Auditor- General’s online report can be accessed at this PS News link and his 79-page printed report at this link.
The audit team was Amy Willmott, Kai Swoboda, Tessa Osborne, Jessica Carroll, Swatilekha Ahmed, and Brian Boyd.
