Mr Moore said that an Auditor-General’s report last year had referred to the work practices in the Department of Urban Services, ACTION and ACT Electricity and Water but they had still not been dealt with, though ACTEW had dealt with its meal-allowance overpayments.
The head of the department, John Turner, said the matter was being addressed, but it could not be dealt with overnight.
Mr Moore said he had questioned officials at a Public Accounts hearing last week but had not been given satisfactory answers.
“”To be told they don’t know the extent of the unjustified allowances or when they will be dealt with is a totally unacceptable cop out,” he said.
The Auditor-General found union members getting allowances provided in awards to which their union was not a party, thus causing double or treble allowance claims; misconstruing the original intention of allowances (for example, toxic allowance for handling fluorescent tubes which contain minute amounts of toxic materials to which the employee is not exposed); claims for machinery allowances when the machines are no longer used (for example, $4201 a year for using a machine that had not been used since the 1970s); payments for meal and shift allowances to which employees were not entitled.
The Auditor-General quoted the Industrial Relations Commission as saying it was a gravy train.
Mr Moore said, “”Who knows how much we are losing. They cannot tell us if it is in the hundreds of thousands or the millions.”
Mr Turner said the department was undertaking a detailed review and payroll analysis.
“”We are not in a position to say if it is a big problem, but we don’t believe it is,” he said. “”I think it’s been exaggerated.”
To give an idea of the scale, he said that ACTEW’s total wage bill was $60 million and the total allowances were $200,000.
It was a 10-year issue. He had inherited practices from the old Department of Housing and Construction and the Department of Territories. He had 20 workplaces with local agreements. Many employees had poor basic pay and if in the past they had not had the allowances they would have claimed and probably achieved a basic pay rise anyway.
A catalyst was needed to reform the system. That catalyst was enterprise bargaining and it was being done. Allowances could be merged and reformed. “”Rorts” was the wrong word.
“”You have to take into account custom and practice,” he said. “”You can’t change things overnight. You have to negotiate or you get industrial disruption.”
He accepted that there might be some allowances that should not be paid, but it was not a simple issue.
Mr Moore said it was unsatisfactory that the department did not know how long the sorting-out process would take; how much money was involved; and cold not predict the outcome.
The Auditor-General’s report, brought down in December last year, said, “”The Department of Urban Services and the Department of Environment, Land and Planning have advices that they are presently reviewing whether such allowance payments have occurred . . .
“”It appears that management from both ACTEW and the ACT Government have been aware of this situation for a substantial period of time and have not promptly taken effective remedial action. In commenting on this situation, the Industrial Relations Commission stated that , “Firstly, management of the relevant areas deserve the strongest condemnation for ineptitude. And secondly, for those employees, the “”gravy train” has come to an end.”
Mr Moore said that judging on the answers he had received at the public accounts hearing last week, the “”gravy train” was still on the tracks.