School solar grants rip-off - State accused of skimming fees

Daily Telegraph
Wednesday 25/3/2009 Page: 17

THE State Government has been accused of trying to rip off its own schools by skimming millions of dollars off federal grants through ''management fees". Schools were encouraged to apply directly to the Federal Government for a one-off $50,000 grant to buy solar panels and rainwater tanks under its National Solar Schools Program.

The Rees Government forced its schools to go through its procurement system, a decision that allows it to charge a 2.5% management fee for doing what schools could have done themselves. The Government will also keep the lucrative renewable energy certificates that come with buying solar panels and could have been worth $1800 to each school. "You have to hand it to the Rees Government they know how to get their cut," Opposition MP Michael Richardson said. "It's there in the tine print in black and white in the contract.

They can't deny they were going to be doing this." Details of the fee are outlined in the 544-page contract for suppliers on the Department of Commerce's tendering website. Contractors were also warned in the paperwork that the management fee "will not under any circumstances be shown as a separate charge in any quote or invoice to a customer".

Yesterday the State Government said it had never intended to charge the fee and that its own contract was apparently wrong. "The request for tender documentation should not have referred to a 2.5% fee," a spokeswoman for Commerce Minister Carmel Tebbutt said. The Department of Commerce will ensure tenderers are aware the fee has been waived."

However, school principals say it is these "management fees" that usually add almost 30% to maintenance costs. "They are always skimming money off the top. That's why they make all the schools go through their maintenance contractors, so they can get their management fee on top," Public Schools Principals Forum chairwoman Cheryl McBride said.

"I applied for the grant a year ago and had contractors come out and quote and then a memo came out from the Director-General saying they wanted us to go through together and get a better deal. I still don't have solar panels. "I'm sure someone gets a better deal with these things but it's not the schools in the long term." A spokeswoman for Education Minister Verity Firth said the Government intended to return the value of the renewable energy certificates to schools.