Group of corporations awarded $1.81bn in contracts
“As the money goes up, the scrutiny should go up”
Rudd pledged record sums trying to tackle poverty
AUSTRALIA’S booming foreign-aid program is delivering handsome profits to a group of seven corporations that has scored a staggering $1.81 billion in taxpayer-funded contracts.
But the lack of scrutiny of their profits, and huge sums being provided to agencies such as the World Bank, which receives $450 million a year, is under challenge.
Aid experts and the Opposition are demanding greater accountability for the money being spent to tackle global poverty.
GRM International had $500 million in AusAID contracts over the past 18 months, including $92 million to encourage Africans to study here.
Cardno, which lists former defence chief Peter Cosgrove on its board of directors, and which reported a record $59 million profit last year, has $442 million in contracts.
Coffey International booked $353.4 million in contracts, including $31 million to weed out corruption in Papua New Guinea.
The dividends for shareholders and executives will grow even fatter because Australia’s aid budget is forecast to soar to about $8.5 billion by 2015-16.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to spend record sums trying to tackle poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries, but the rise in spending is causing resentment among ministerial colleagues.
Contract information listed on the Government’s AusTender site shows SMEC International, which grew out of the Snowy Mountains scheme, had $202.9 million in contracts since July, 2010.
There is no better business than ‘aid’-business:
First you receive the money, then you take your share and then you distribute the rest of the money.
Totally different to the private industry where you have to invest, produce and at the end hope you can sell at a profit what you sold…