Big-money anomalies in defence contracts
The Age
Tuesday March 9, 2010
PRIVATE firms allocated thousands of dollars by the Defence Department for hotel accommodation, horseback trail rides, and use of an executive jet, say they have no knowledge of the contracts.The Defence Department is required to publish on the internet all contracts worth more than $10,000, a transparency measure introduced in 2001.According to these notices, a tourism company in far north Queensland called Blazing Saddles was paid $37,000 in March 2008 for "stockhorses and transport from Cairns to Darwin".But the Cairns-based company says it does not do any tours or transport between the two top-end cities. They also did not remember a job of that size. Most of its customers take half-day horse rides across a large property at Kuranda. For $37,000, the company could have provided 352 rides.The Defence Department has yet to comment on this contract, and several others, despite being first asked about it on February 26.Example after example of such anomalies can be found in the notices €” meant to provide taxpayers with details about how their dollars are spent.Under a contract entitled "stuff" in the official public notice, the department spent $30,000 for goods from a promotions and marketing company.In May and June 2009 the Defence Department says it hired a Lear jet and crew, for $33,000. But Pel-Air Aviation says that although it performs regular jobs for the military, it has no record of this particular contract.In May 2008, a department notice recorded a $250,000 accommodation bill from the Hyatt Regency hotel in Adelaide.It was for a period of only one day €” March 5 €” but when contacted, the hotel could not offer an explanation. "There was nothing that big here at our hotel at that time," said a senior hotel employee, who did not want to be named.Some contracts also appear to have been duplicated. A $400 million deal with recruitment firm Chandler MacLeod, for example, was published in early 2009 under four different contract identification numbers, but for amounts that differed from each other by as much as $45 million.It is clear these particular contracts have been amended €” even though all of them were published on the same day.In May 2008, the Defence Department paid $12,100 to Bentley Suites, a Canberra serviced-apartment complex, for two nights in April 2008, according to the published contract.But the hotel has no record of the bill. A senior employee, who also did not wish to be named, said the published expense was "completely impossible" to explain. "There was nothing that highlighted that amount of money at all. Nothing like it," the employee said.The Defence Department said that six Defence Materiel Organisation staff from Melbourne did use accommodation in Canberra from March 11 to April 3, but conceded there was a problem with the department's records."Defence records show that ... the total payment made to Bentley Suites for this activity was $9236 (GST inclusive), not $12,100," a spokeswoman said.
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