EXCLUSIVE
A Greens senator has been forced to make a humiliating backdown after grilling government officials over a missing $100million payment – which turned out to only be $100,000.
An outraged Senator Barbara Pocock relentlessly pursued answers over the alleged nine-digit payment which she claimed was ‘worth 1,000 years of nurses’ labour‘ during a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday.
Ms Pocock accused the government department chiefs of paying the massive $100million fee to Big Four financial services firm KPMG ‘to preserve a relationship with a big consultancy firm’.
And she was outraged that Department of Finance deputy secretary Richard Windeyer simply couldn’t answer her questions about the staggering payment.
He repeatedly told her that he wasn’t aware of the details of the payment – prompting the ‘troubled’ senator to blast his ‘minimalist’ response.
Senator Barbara Pocock (left, with Greens leader Adam Bandt) was relentless in her pursuit of answers over the payment which she said was ‘worth 1,000 years of nurses’ labour ‘
But about three hours into the Joint Corporations and Financial Services Committee hearing on Monday, it became apparent that the senator’s alleged $100million ‘mispayment’ never existed.
Instead, the entirety of the contract is worth $100million, but the ‘mispayment’ Ms Pocock was grilling the bureaucrat about actually amounted to $100,000.
She later sought to clarify, noting: ‘I just wanted to clarify something in relation to the contract I spoke about.
‘The KPMG contract with Defence, the total value of it is $100million, but the payment made to preserve a relationship or in advance, and when key milestones had not been properly met, was around $100,000.
‘I just wanted to clarify those numbers.’
But despite having egg on her face, Ms Pocock bizarrely went on to share her allegations about the $100million payment on her X account at 1pm on Monday.
‘It’s disturbing to hear in the inquiry hearing today about an almost complete lack of oversight in delivery of contracts by big 4 consultants, particularly those lucrative Defence contracts. KPMG was paid $100million for work that in some instances was not delivered at all,’ she wrote.
The post was removed by 3.30pm on Tuesday following questions from Daily Mail Australia.
But a series of left-wing accounts were still sharing video of the moment she torched officials at time of publication.
KPMG has previously rejected claims it was paid for works it did not complete
A spokesman for Ms Pocock later told Daily Mail Australia ‘she had a lot of detailed information in front of her during the inquiry hearing, and while trying to make a point about the mismanagement of contracts she mis-stated the figure saying ‘one-hundred-million’ when she meant ‘one-hundred-thousand’.
‘Fortunately, she was able to correct the record as soon as she became aware of the error.’
Ms Pocock had earlier questioned whether it was ‘unethical’ for a government department to ‘retrospectively adjust a project description or design to justify a payment to a consultant when the original terms and design have not been met’.
‘This is $100million – that’s worth 1,000 years of nurses labor in a single payment,’ she said.
‘It’s an enormous amount of money… and you have no knowledge of a $100million mispayment… that really troubles me.’
Mr Windeyer said: ‘Senator, I’m not for a moment trying to dismiss the seriousness of what you’re talking about.’
As he fumbled around providing an answer, Ms Pocock cut him off, saying: ‘I really feel for you in a new role but I’m hearing a very administrative and technical response to this issue.
‘It’s a minimalist response.’
KPMG has previously rejected claims it was paid for works it did not complete.
‘There is absolutely no substance to these allegations,’ a spokesperson said.
‘KPMG adamantly rejects any claim of impropriety and can confirm Defence has not paid one dollar more than they should have for our work on the One Defence Data project.’