Shadow Finance Minister Rob Lucas is calling for Minister Wortley to review urgently the tendering process which led to the Labor Government giving one company, Maxxia, a monopoly contract for salary sacrifice arrangements to all public servants.
Earlier this month the Queensland Government revealed Remserv, one of two salary sacrifice providers in that state, had been involved in a $500,000 fraud involving 7600 Queensland public servants.
Queensland Minister Bruce Flegg was very critical of RemServ and also of the “cosy duopoly” arrangements in Queensland. RemServ is an associated company of Maxxia, whose website refers to RemServ as a “sister company”.
Minister Flegg has revealed RemServ was aware of the fraud by one of its employees in late December 2010 – well before the tendering process in late 2011 for the monopoly contract in South Australia.
“Minister Wortley refused to answer questions in Parliament yesterday as to whether this information was revealed to the Government during the tendering process before they gave the monopoly contract to Maxxia,” Mr Lucas said.
“Minister Wortley also refused to reveal whether tender applicants were required to reveal this type of information and that if Maxxia had not revealed this information, whether they had breached any of the tender requirements.
“There has been controversy about the Government’s decision to award this contract to a monopoly provider, so it is essential that Mr Wortley review the tender process and answer all the questions he refused to answer in Parliament yesterday.”
