Green Start Senate Committee Recommendations

Quote from Senate Committee Enquiry:

"Given the publication of the Auditor General's report into the Green Loans Program and subsequent to the conduct of this inquiry, the committee recommends that the Commonwealth Ombudsman consider conducting an own motion investigation into the administrative actions and arrangements within the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, that resulted in the serious problems with governance and communication endemic throughout the Green Loans Program."

It will be interesting to note which of these 15 recommendations will be taken onboard.

Read the Senate Committee Recommendations

Information is edited / supplied by GLP Assessor at http://glpassessor.blogspot.com.

Assessors Will Never Forget GLP BAD MANAGEMENT

The Auditor General's Report is a must read for all those people thinking of working with Government. One can see from the report into the GLP, that a lack of management and what private business would see as commonsense, is simply not present most of the time. Failings common place around every corner.

After reading the report there has to be serious doubt about staying involved in the new Green Start program. It is not a matter of thinking change but logics, commonsense and financial survival.

Quoted from the report:

Aspects of the program had not been administered to the standard that the Government and the community expected. The Minister also noted that:

• around 4000 of the 7500 assessors had been contracted under the program, but with the program capped to 5000 assessors, some assessors would not receive contracts to work under the program;
• over 210 000 of the program’s 360 000 assessments (58 per cent) had been completed in the first eight months of the program;
• only 84 000 assessments (40 per cent of completed assessments) had been sent to households and there was a backlog of around 100 000 assessment reports yet to be sent out to households;
• the delay in dispatching assessment reports was a contributing factor to the low uptake of green loans—only 1705 loans had been approved by participating financial institutions at that time;
• Green Rewards cards had not been distributed to households; and delays in paying assessors were mostly due to incorrectly rendered invoices (with around 50 per cent of invoices incorrect or incomplete when first submitted).

Program changes announced on 19 February 2010 effectively capped the number of assessors and the demand for assessments, but also left thousands of assessors, who had each invested their time and around $3000 on training, insurance and registration, with unfulfilled work expectations.

The backlog of assessment reports to be distributed continued to grow to over 100 000, which denied many householders the opportunity to apply for an interest‐free green loan. - End quote.

How could anyone really be cleared of such a fiasco, beats me........


Information is edited / supplied by GLP Assessor at http://glpassessor.blogspot.com.

Skeletons In The Green Loans Program Call Center

Thank you to the Auditor General's Report for stating what assessors could only assume as the obvious, when being stopped from booking appointments early in 2010. 


Quote "During the six-week period between the resumption of contact centre operations after the Christmas closedown (11 January 2010) and the announced caps on bookings (19 February 2010), the contact centre received 290 798 calls, only a quarter of which entered the queue."

Information is edited / supplied by GLP Assessor at http://glpassessor.blogspot.com.

Green Loans Program Audit Report 29/09/10

The following is quoted from the ANAO Australian National Audit Office's website, regarding the recently released audit into the failure of the Green Loans Program.

"On 3 February 2010, Senator Christine Milne wrote to the Auditor General raising concerns about DEWHA’s administration of the Green Loans program and requesting a performance audit of the program. Issues raised included: uncapped assessor numbers; problems with the delivery of the program; the quality of assessor training and assessments provided to households; the lack of an audit facility within the program; and equitable access to work under the program.

In light of Senator Milne’s request and other concerns in relation to the administration of the program, the Auditor-General agreed on 25 February 2010 to conduct a performance audit of the program. The objective of the audit was to examine key aspects of the establishment and administration of the Green Loans program by DEWHA and the program’s transition to DCCEE. Particular emphasis was given to the program’s three main elements:

• training, registration and contracting of assessors;
• scheduling, conduct, and reporting of home sustainability assessments, and the associated payments to assessors; and
• provision of green loans to householders, and the associated payments to participating financial institutions.

The audit also examined the extent to which steps had been taken by DEWHA and DCCEE to assess whether the Green Loans program was achieving its objectives."

Visit the ANAO website here or download the audit into who was responsible here.

Please use this blog to leave your comments on the audit. And if like GLPAssessor you still feel that you have been let down by both the Government and ABSA, leave your vote on this site.

How can you have a professional body in charge of training, that knowingly over trains, or allows the supposed allocation of assessors to grow to an unsustainable number, knowing that the system will break?

Could a system such as that, if having trainers on the board ever argue their way out of a conflict of interest? And could such a system be their really 100% in favour of voicing assessors opinions in a true honest sustainable workplace, for all parties concerned?

We must remember that a similar Green Loans Program operated in the UK. Where the only winners before the system over trained the nembers, were the Fat Cat Trainers.....

Information is edited / supplied by GLP Assessor at http://glpassessor.blogspot.com.

Green Loans Program Assessors Think Change At The General Election

Green Loans Program assessors 'Think Change', when it comes to the Green Start Program being offered as an alternative career option, by Penny Wong at the Department Of Climate Change .

As an accredited assessor are you going to change your vote at the General Election?

Information is edited / supplied by GLP Assessor at http://glpassessor.blogspot.com.