Auditor queries facts, climate ads cost

8 Feb 2012, 6:52 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The auditor-general has raised concerns over unsourced facts and the financial management of the government's Clean Energy Future campaign.

Labor's 2011 carbon tax advertising campaign contained facts which were not properly sourced and seven breaches of financial management regulations, an audit has found.

The Auditor-General examined the Clean Energy Future advertising campaign which ran last year in the wake of the government, independents and Greens agreeing on a carbon pricing scheme to start on July 1, 2012.

Revised rules for government advertising began in March 2010, requiring chief executives of agencies and departments to get advice from an independent communications committee (ICC) on the compliance of campaigns of more than $250,000.

But the audit found the Clean Energy Future (CEF) campaign could have been done with "greater discipline" in regard to documenting the source of statements made about carbon pricing, the giving and recording of financial approvals, signing off on ministerial briefs and getting value for money.

While the CEF print, radio and television material made 142 statements which were verified by the auditor-general through a "matrix" system, 52 others were not.

"The department was not able to establish a clear line of sight between 52 statements presented as fact in the campaign and the sources cited in the matrix to support those statements," the Auditor-General's report said.

Checks were also made of 99 statements in a 20-page colour booklet mailed to 9.8 million households in August 2011 at a cost of $4.2 million.

The report said three key statements - that the scheme would cut 160 million tonnes of pollution every year, that over half of the money will be used to fund tax cuts, pension rises and higher family payments and that the biggest polluters will pay for every tonne of carbon they put into the atmosphere - were not properly referenced in the material.

The Auditor-General also identified seven breaches of financial management regulations, including an incident in which an officer gave verbal financial approval for $1.7 million in spending on the household mail-out distribution contract but another officer was recorded as giving the approval.

The report queried whether taxpayers got value for money out of the tendering process, particularly relating to the mail-out printing contract.

The tender for the printing of the mail-out - $2.7 million for 10 million copies - was done in one and a half days, which the auditor described as a "severely compressed timeframe (which) ... had the effect of limiting the number of suppliers and reducing the potential of the process to maximise value for money".

A sudden change to the scope of the tender meant the department gave firms 90 minutes to quote on the cost of printing the booklet in A4 and A5.

The ICC also found in its November 2011 review of the campaign that "the advertisements did not translate into high levels of action", noting a low number of calls to the Clean Energy Future hotline and associated website.

The department said in its formal response to the report that the campaign was undertaken "in difficult circumstances and related to a complex policy package that relied heavily on the work of other agencies".

But it recognised there were "procedural shortcomings" in the administration of the campaign and was committed to improving its processes.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said in a statement that despite the queries about sourcing the audit showed that the government's clean energy advertisements were "factually accurate" after further information checks were conducted.

He said there was also no evidence to suggest there was any party political material.

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