A group of assessors working under the Government’s Green Loans scheme are filing for $1.5 million in compensation, saying the program was rife with faults and administration errors.
The claim comes just weeks after three separate reports revealed a number of disturbing oversights in the Government’s program, including possible breaches of the Financial Management Act.
The compensation claim has been lodged by the GLACO Assessors Group on behalf of 54 individuals, and was made through the Commonwealth for Detriment caused by Defective Administration Scheme.
The individuals are former employees of GLACO, an assessment group which ceased trading in April. At the time, the Coalition called for the Government to repay the assessors the money they were owed.
The group claims its representatives are owed more than $456,000 in unpaid work, and presented this case at the recent Green Loans Government inquiry.
The group claims that at a recent Senate inquiry into the Green Loans program, it told the Government to pay the assessors directly rather than through the company acting as their booking agent. However, now it claims that money hasn’t been passed on and the group wants immediate payments from the Government to the individual assessors.
GLACO spokesperson Leanne McIntosh says the program was a “financial disaster” for workers, who depended on the scheme to make a living. She also attacked the upcoming Green Start program, saying the Government should fix the mistakes of the previous scheme for beginning a new one.
“It was a great idea, just poorly implemented,” she said in a statement.
“It’s the poor twin of the insulation program – same poor administration, same damage to small businesses and families across Australia. Insulation installers were offered a $15 million compensation package and they are still going to sue. Green Loans assessors have been offered nothing to date and banks are now foreclosing on people’s houses.”
The Green Loans program has been attacked for its numerous errors and shortcomings. The Government underestimated how many assessors would join the program, and its booking system was constantly backlogged and understaffed.
Assessors also attacked the Government’s amendments, which it made to the scheme after a number of faults were pointed out. Assessors were restricted to only a certain number of assessments per week, which many said was an unsustainable way to earn a living and consequently left the industry altogether.
Several Green Loans companies have previously said the Government’s changes severely impacted their ability to operate a full schedule of assessments, hurting their bottom lines.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
