Clayton
COSGROVE
Spokesperson for SOEs
24 May 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
OAG puts Govt on notice re Solid Energy

The Auditor General has said she wants to see ‘accountability to both Parliament and the public’ on the circumstances surrounding Solid Energy’s near-failure, says Labour’s SOEs spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

“I am pleased to see that the Auditor General agrees that to date there has not been sufficient accountability to the public and Parliament on Solid Energy.

“It is worth noting that the Auditor General said an inquiry does not add value only ‘at the moment’.

“I am slightly mystified as to what the other reviews she refers to are given that the Government refused to conduct a ministerial review and blocked a select committee of inquiry, Treasury appears to be doing nothing more than dumping information at the behest of the Government, and neither the KordaMentha report nor the restructuring will investigate what went wrong and why the company is $389 million in debt and 700 jobs have been lost.

“The Auditor General says she will ‘reconsider [her] position if circumstances change to such an extent that proper public accountability is undermined’.

“If there continues to be a lack of public accountability I will raise the matter with the Auditor General again,” says Clayton Cosgrove.

ENDS

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