Audit of Green Loans scheme must deliver certainty, industry veteran says

The current audits into the Government’s troubled Green Loans scheme should aim to deliver certainty and provide easier ways for taxpayers to access funds, an industry veteran has said.

The comments come as Prime Minster Kevin Rudd has accepted responsibility for the failed insulation scheme, part of the Government’s green initiatives campaign that is being given a complete overhaul.

Tom Buckley, managing director of Green Home Loans Australia, says the audit should not necessarily provide answers for what has happened but give certainty of what upcoming changes will be made.

“We would like to see some key directions on where the industry is heading. Any answers given are not going to help us, and the Government has hurried through some changes, but it’s just made more people nervous.”

“I’d like some direction otherwise I’m going to have people leaving the industry. And that’s why the green loans scheme was set up in the first place, not just to keep emissions down but to keep people in the industry.”

Buckley says one of the Government’s main mistakes was reducing the amount of green loans to be given through the scheme, when in fact these loans were actually under-used. He says the problem lies in the reporting of numbers.

The Government’s program saw hundreds of thousands of “green” assessments made for home improvements, but few of the loans set aside were actually taken up due to the reported delays in these assessment reports reaching home owners.

Buckley says if the program were to ensure bookings were made faster, and reports were given out to home owners, then the program could easily work.

“An online booking system would help enormously, and it would save the Government a huge amount of costs. Considering the Green Loans component is not a huge cost, it was strange to cut that out altogether instead of make it easier to access.”

Buckley’s comments come as the Australian National Audit Office has already begun working on its report. In a letter to Greens senator Christine Milne, the ANAO said preliminary investigations have already begun.

“The Australian National Audit Office has commenced some preliminary work in the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, to determine the objective and scope of the audit.”

“At this stage, it is our intention to examine, DEWHA’s administration of key aspects of the program as well as the proposed changes announced by the Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts on February 19, 2010.”

However, it could be some time before the audit’s results are finalised. The letter states that “The ANAO anticipates that the audit will begin in late February 2010 and, all going to plan, will be completed by the end of the third quarter this year.”

It comes as PricewaterhouseCoopers is conducting its own audit into the scheme, investigating the blow-out in the number of assessors, long wait times on the Government’s official hotline and the sooner-than-expected fulfilment of over 300,000 assessments.

Controversy arose last week when environment minister Peter Garrett announced changes to the scheme, limiting assessments to just five per week. However, the industry hit back saying this would cause a number of layoffs.

Buckley told SmartCompany earlier this week his business, along with several others, would be affected by the changes.

Meanwhile, Rudd said on ABC television last night he took full responsibility for the botched insulation scheme, which has seen dodgy providers flood the industry with cheap, unsafe products causing house fires.

“This program has created real problems on the ground; it has resulted in a lot of difficulty for a lot of people. As Prime Minister of the country I accept responsibility for that. My job now is to fix it up.”