Key facts
- Senior public servants hid extent of COVID-19 grant losses.
- Losses are suspected to be up to A$285 million.
- Information was withheld and falsified over an extended period.
- The investigation probed conduct within the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.
- IBAC made no adverse findings against current Victorian Premier Ben Carroll.
Senior public servants in Victoria, Australia, have been found to have hidden the extent of losses from COVID-19 business grants given to ineligible companies, according to an investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC). The IBAC's Operation Harmonia report, tabled in parliament on Thursday, found that officials within the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions deliberately withheld and falsified information about the scale of the losses, suspected to be as high as A$285 million. The department had spent an estimated A$257 million on grants to 9,000 ineligible businesses. The report detailed how a deputy secretary directed that information about the losses be removed from a draft report and later provided misleading information to a minister. IBAC Commissioner Victoria Elliott stated that the conduct exposed serious failures by senior public officers.