Victorian officials hid $257m in COVID grants paid to ineligible businesses

Officials concealed the scale of losses

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission report stated that senior officials decided not to report the full extent of the financial error. By mid-2021, department managers knew about issues with using GST as a metric but chose to withhold this data. The probe concluded that misleading information was created and shared over an extended period rather than being corrected immediately.

Payments went to unregistered entities

Approximately $257 million in funds were distributed to more than 9,000 businesses that did not meet registration requirements. The scheme required recipients to be registered for GST, yet many failed this basic criterion during the pandemic. Public servants suspected the payments might total $285 million but only reported a lower figure to ministers.

Probe found no political pressure

The investigation determined there was no evidence that politicians pressured staff to hide the information from government leaders. The report noted this was not a one-off event caused by an oversight or simple mistake. Decisions to withhold details were made deliberately within the department responsible for managing the support payments.