• DOGS have calculated that if 2 per cent of the nation's 2200 private schools are audited every year, then it will take 50 years on the average before a particular school is audited on the basis of pupil numbers.

• DOGS also note that if Church schools can falsify their enrolment figures with the probability that they will not be found out for another fifty years, then how seriously can their pupil enrolment figures be taken?

• What percentage share of the current student population in Australia do the Church Schools really hold? How seriously can their claims regarding their increasing share be taken? What is statistics and what are lies?

How Long do Citizen-Taxpayers have to Suffer ?

For how long will Australians put up with the failure of the Commonwealth Auditor General to do a proper job in relation to federal State Aid to Church Schools?  As federal taxpayers and citizens we have a right to expect that the public authorities halt the abdication of responsibility for expenditure of public funds.

In recent times taxpayers have been forced to rely upon a newspaper 'freedom of information' exercise to discover  how  bad the situation has become in relation to the expenditure of taxpayer's money.

Church Schools Escape Rort Check.

Federal Level of Public Accountability: Is there any?

In The Sydney Morning Herald of May 27, 2008 Gerald Noonan and Anna Patty , in an article entitled 'Schools Escape Rort Check' wrote:

The Federal Government has been forced to admit it checks only a tiny percentage of independent schools f9or exploitation of its controversial $12 billion school funding system, despite evidence it is being rorted.

In response to a Herald freedom of information inquiry, the Education De0partment said it audited only 2 per cent of the nation's 2200 private schools each year - just over 40 schools - to check for fraudulent enrolment claims.

It was disclosed only when the school was forced to close in April, owing the Federal Government $1.8 million and the NSW Government $541,000.

Lakeside's (Christian College secondary college) former principal was sacked for allegedly falsifying student numbers by 120 to claim extra funding for the school, but he told the Herald that Lakeside had not been audited during his 16 years as principal.

In answer to questions from the Herald, the Government revealed that it audited census data as well as financial questionnaires of just 2 per cent of non-government schools. A representative of each independent school is required to sign a 'financial accountability statement' specifying the amount of money received and certifying that the funds were used for the purpose they were granted.

The Government said it contracted out the audits to accountants. Up to a dozen auditors were used each year to verify the census data, it said. The financial questionnaires were examined by McGrath Nicol Corporate Advisory in 2007, by Resolve Consulting in 2006 and by Ernst and Young in 2005. The Government said site visits to verify census data were conducted at the schools selected for an audit.

Given the above admissions of current practice, DOGS have calculated that if 2 per cent of the nation's 2200 private schools are audited every year, then it will take 50 years on the average before a particular school is audited on the basis of pupil numbers.

DOGS also note that if Church schools can falsify their enrolment figures with the probability that they will not be found out for another fifty years, then how seriously can their pupil enrolment figures be taken?

What percentage share of the current student population in Australia do the Church Schools really hold? How seriously can their claims regarding their increasing share be taken? What is statistics and what are lies?

State Level of Accountability: Even Less than Federal

According to a spokesman for the then NSW Minister for Education, John Della Bosca said:

 To avoid duplication, NSW largely relies on audits by the Commonwealth, which is the major funder of non-government schools.

NSW Greens Complain At State Level

John Kaye, the Greens MP in the NSW parliament ( Legislative Council) said that he would move in State Parliament to ensure that enrolment figures for each private school were audited every year.

'Public schools are audited every year,' he said. 'Enrolment figures are checked against roll books and spot checks on actual students. In no other sector of the economy is so much public money put into private hands without proper checks and balances.'

The NSW Department of Education also checks student numbers at each public school with state-wide censuses each year. This is followed by more than 300 targeted audits of schools with unexplained enrolment changes.

The Federal Auditor General Should Do His Job or Resign

Once Again DOGS challenges the Federal Auditor to Do his Job - Or Resign!

DOGS challenges the Federal Auditor General to read this News Release alongside Press Release 246  at www.adogs.info/pr246.htm alongside the letters we have sent relating to the scandalous lack of accountability for billions of taxpayers money paid to Church schools.

Does the Federal Auditor General accept that a school's enrolment figures and hence taxpayer funding level can be checked only once in fifty years?

Does the auditor general agree with the spokesperson for Julia Gillard, Kimberley Gardiner, that most non-government schools were meeting

long-standing and rigorous financial accountability mechanisms in place to safeguard both the taxpayer funds and the educational outcomes for their children?

If the Auditor General  agrees with Kimberley Gardiner, then he should, in all honesty, resign.

If he does not resign, then he should be sacked. Australian citizen/taxpayers need a new genuinely independent Auditor General to lay down thorough and proper rules as to auditing of church school funding.

THE AUDITOR GENERAL SHOULD STOP BEING PART OF A SICK JOKE

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