Software swindle gets AG's tick
A review with an intentionally limited scope has found nothing to worry about in the relationship between Parakeelia and the Liberal Party.
Parakeelia is a Liberal Party-owned software company that receives taxpayer funds, collects information on voters, and makes large donations to Liberal coffers.
But Auditor-General Grant Hehir says that seems fine.
Mr Herir has completed a “limited scope assurance review” — not an audit — of the links between Parakeelia and the Liberals, finding no evidence “that the arrangements contravene electoral and parliamentary entitlement frameworks”.
“Further, the financial transactions reported to the Australian Electoral Commission between Parakeelia and the Liberal Party indicated a net cost to the Liberal Party from 2000-01 to 2014-15,” he said.
“Over the period examined, the profits of the company were equivalent to the subsidies paid by the Liberal Party,” the official findings state.
“[Therefore], the company would not have generated profits over the period without the subsidies paid by the Liberal Party.
The auditor’s analysis of Parakeelia's financial transactions from 2009-10 to 2014-15 did not identifiyany donations to the Liberal Party, but did find a number of payments between the two parties over that time.
There were three types of payments from Parakeelia to the Liberal Party in particular;
reimbursement of costs incurred by Parakeelia in providing Feedback software that were initially paid by the Liberal Party
payments by Parakeelia for office accommodation used by the Liberal Party, which was reimbursed by the Liberal Party
transfers from Parakeelia to the Liberal Party for cash flow purposes, which were reimbursed by the Liberal Party
Mr Herir said he would post the full analysis on the ANAO website in coming days.