Brian Boyd from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has given evidence on the first day of a parliamentary inquiry into the so-called sports rort affair. Boyd said that around 43% of clubs that received grants under the Community Sport Infrastructure program were ineligible to do so by the time the funding agreements were signed. Auditor-General Grant Hehir told the inquiry that “comfortably dozens” of emails were exchanged between the Prime Minister’s office and the office of senator Bridget McKenzie during the grants process:
Mr Hehir said the awarding of grant funding under the program was not informed by an “appropriate assessment process and sound advice”.
He said the parallel process run by Senator McKenzie’s office alongside that of government agency Sport Australia “was not informed by clear advice and … not consistent with the program guidelines”…