Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says the CLP Opposition has referred a $4.3 million contract, awarded to Ernst and Young consultancy by NT Health, to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) after the Territory’s Auditor General found it was against procurement rules.
“This consultancy was originally commissioned to review the Department of Health’s COVID-19 response and quietly morphed into recommendations to guide an extensive internal restructure of NT Health; which has seen a return to the old governance of silos, and stripped regions of local decision-making.
“Back in May, the Opposition called on the Health Minister to make this secret report public – and reveal the price tag. Minister Fyles refused, citing ‘Cabinet in Confidence’, which has become a classic Labor excuse.
“In response to Opposition questions submitted through a formal Parliamentary process, Minister Fyles claimed that the tender was not required to be released publicly because it was approved under an emergency procurement exemption process and instead was awarded through ‘direct contracting’.
“It’s now been revealed that the consultancy, which started out with a $700,000 price tag, has actually cost taxpayers $4.3 million – and that the tender was not approved under the emergency procurement exemption process.
The Auditor General also found:
- The Agency did not comply with the Procurement Rules – including 42 of the required criteria;
- The Project Specific Procurement Plan does not refer to the procurement being undertaken under the exemption as claimed by the Health Minister;
- Criteria for direct contracting was not met by the Agency;
- The significant number of high value variations is indicative that the scope of works was not well considered nor well defined at the outset; and
- That 24 recommendations were made, two of which refer to conflicts of interest; another refers to contracts being appropriately disclosed except in ‘limited and justified circumstances’.
“That is why the CLP Opposition has referred this very serious matter to ICAC for further investigation.
“For a government that came to power on a platform of openness and transparency, Labor has absolutely failed. The fact they attempted to conceal this report and a major cost blowout under the cover of COVID is outrageous. And begs the question: what else are they hiding?
“Minister Fyles has crippled the Territory’s health system with four Code Yellow critical staff and bed shortages in less than 12 months, overseen the mass cancellation of elective surgeries, failed to rollout the remote vaccination program – and is now responsible for misleading Territorians by claiming this $4.3 million procurement happened under ‘emergency exemptions’.
“Territory taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent on, and have every right to be outraged that the Auditor General has found Procurement rules were breached throughout this process.
“Natasha Fyles has failed at every turn. Will she finally resign as the Territory’s worst Health Minister? ” said Mr Yan.
ENDS