Former Morrison government minister Keith Pitt has railed against criticisms that ministers should not exercise their discretion and act against the advice of the public service.
Pitt told Sky News this week that he and his ministerial staff had a different view of the public service on grants that were put forward for his approval.
He said there were times ministers had legitimate reasons to make a decision contrary to departmental recommendations where value for money was concerned.
Pitt was reacting to a research report released by the Institute of Public Accountants and Deakin University that found that grants awarded to businesses by the commonwealth government between 2018 and 2022 were non-competitive.
Researchers found that only 17% of $3 billion in grants awarded to businesses were competitive during that period.
“As a former minister in the previous government, I signed plenty of grants — I’ve got to tell you — for the Murray Darling,” Pitt said.
“There were occasions where I had a different view as did my staff to what was put forward by the public service, and for very good reason.”
Pitt said that there were examples of projects where there was meant to be a cap on administration of 10% but people structuring a grant bid also included a project management that was 40% of the total grant on offer.
He said that 50% of the value of the project on administration costs “wasn’t value for money”.
Pitt said he disagreed with the view that a minister should just accept the assessments of projects and grants from the public service when they come up for approval, and that the government gets elected to govern.
“I oppose this idea that the minister is powerless — that the minister has no right to make a decision,” he said.
“The idea that the country is run entirely by the public service and the minister has no say — I just don’t agree with it.”
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