Time to Sack the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)

DOGS have many times expressed concerns regarding the failure of the Auditor General and the ANAO to audit the rorting of State Aid to Church schools.

A letter dated 27 June 2008 was received by the DOGS from Mr Steven Lack , A/Group Executive Director, Performance Audit Services Group, ANAO, He informed us that the ANAO was planning an audit of non-government schools funding. DOGS are concerned that the current ANAO has proved to be a failure. They have given no indication that they are going to perform their task without asking for advice and guidance from outside bodies who have a much wider and disciplined approach to the audit of non-government school funding. A closed approach before and during the audit are not acceptable for taxpayers interested in proper accountability.

 Will the ANAO Consider Ghost Pupils, a Ghost School and Ghost Teachers?

i. Ghost Pupils:

During the ANAO watch taxpayers have had to put up with ghost pupils. This rorting of the funding on the basis of enrolments was not caught by the ANAO system. We refer readers to Press Release 246 ( www.adogs.info/pr246.htm ) and Press Release 256 ( www.adogs.info/pr256.htm)

ii. Ghost School

  Could the ANAO give a detailed account of how a supposed ghost school may succeed in getting taxpayer subsidisation. On a website, Adelaide Now, 17 July 2007 an article was reported from the Adelaide Advertiser entitled "Police Probe School that Doesn't Exist." In part, the article states:

Police are investigating allegations that Government funding of more than $50,000 has been given to a school that may not exist.

About 40 students a year are alleged to have been enrolled' in the phantom school for the past five years. The names of real students at other schools allegedly were used to form the enrolment list of the after-hours school and report cards were written- without parents' knowledge.

Police are investigating irregularities' relating to state and federal government funding that was granted to the 'Spirit of David' Adelaide Hebrew School during the past five years.

iii.   Ghost Teachers

A interesting story appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of September 15, 2008. It was entitled ""Husband Freed from Wife of Crime". This article dealt with the funding of non-existent teachers in a wealthy private Anglican school in Sydney: the Cremorne School, Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School ( SCEGGS) Redlands. DOGS quote:

For six years, the Cremorne school SCEGGS Redlands, was unaware that its payroll clerk Alison Barbour was systematically stealing from the school by using the employee codes of five past staff members, as well as creating fake teachers, and directing their salaries into joint accounts she had with her ex-husband.

In fact, the school only became aware that since 2000 she had siphoned off $1,000,253 in 390 separate tranches, when her ex-husband discovered what she had been doing and made her confess to the school in January 2006.

 The chairman of the SCEGGS board, Michael Jones, said at the time that "if Barbour hadn't confessed, I don't know if it would have necessarily come to light."

Under a properly constructed ANAO auditing approach this extraordinary criminal activity could never have continued for six years.

DOGS also note in passing that no public school could afford not to notice that kind of money gone missing. They are too under resourced and have proper accountability procedures anyway. But then, no public school has the resources of a SCEGGS.

Working the State Aid System

The ANAO should inform citizens and taxpayers how the State Aid system is worked by Church operated schools to their financial benefit. DOGS anticipate that the ANAO will claim that our request does not fit within their sphere of influence or obligation.

If this is so, DOGS request the Federal Education Department to inform the poor benighted taxpayer how the churches benefit both directly and indirectly. We refer readers to the following articles which make interesting reading:

Islamic School Faction

• "Islamic Body Using School to Milk Funds " in The Weekend Australian, 25-26 March, 2006 p. 9   

• "Islamic Councils Warned by Bank, Weekend Australian May 27-28, 2006, p. 3

•  "Muslims Feud on Group Finances" The Australian, Monday June 5, 2006, p. 5

• "Muslims sound Alarm over Schools" The Sunday Age, July 31, 2005 p. 4: 'As with all non-government schools, Werribee College is subject to few checks.'

Roman Catholic School Faction

The Islamic folk are not the first and will not be the last to work the State Aid bonanza. Since the 1960s, the major beneficiary of State Aid has been the Roman Catholic Church. But they have never suffered the same exposure in the mainstream media. If you want information on their working of the State Aid bonanza, readers should go to the DOGS full page Advertisements in the 1970s and 1980s. For example.

• State Aid Billion Dollar Manipulation, Australian and The Age of 24 February 1983.

• State Aid: A Billion Dollar Manipulation Madness, The Canberra Times, Friday April 6, 1984.

DOGS Demand a Public Inquiry into Auditing Procedures

DOGS and other taxpayers have been constantly insulted by the Federal auditing of private religious schools since the 1970s. DOGS calls upon the ANAO to set up a public enquiry into proper auditing procedures of State Aid to private church schools. The ANAO has indicated that it is incapable of setting up either an Inquiry or proper auditing procedures. Their performance indicates the need for external direction and supervision of the ANAO.

It is time to sack that ANAO and set up a proper regulatory authority.