Green Loans latest example of climate waste

Sigh. The worst part about this idiotic waste of money is that it was all completely predictable. When has any green scheme not ended up being a wasteful boondoggle? A MYRIAD of problems has forced the government to axe another of its environmental programs - the $275 million Green Loans scheme. COMPLIANCE breaches, budget blowouts, poor management and possible staff kickbacks have forced the government to axe another of its environmental programs - the $275 million Green Loans scheme. As Julia Gillard prepares to unveil a new climate change policy to take to the election, she is dealing with the fallout from three damning reports into the troubled Green Loans scheme. The reports, released yesterday, further damage the government's environmental credentials after the shelving of its emissions trading scheme. They uncovered a litany of problems with the Green Loans scheme, including deliberate and systemic breaches of the government's procurement guidelines and weak budget control that led to cost blowouts. This included a logistics contract that blew out by 19 times its original estimated cost from $77,000 to $1.476m. Full article here.

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