Canberra’s Long Life Family Day Care received $1.6m in childcare subsidies but couldn’t prove it looked after children, by Noel Towell.
A Canberra child-care operator who received $1.6 million in federal subsidies, despite not being able to prove it had a single child in its care, has been put our of business for good, according to the ACT government. …
Long Life Family Day Care … , run by former Education Directorate staffer Ruben Majok Aleer Aguer, was paid more than $1.6 million in Commonwealth child care subsidies, despite not being able to prove his claims that he employed educators and other staff.
Mr Aguer, a Sudanese refugee, had been given considerable leeway by Education Directorate officials to prove he was really running a family daycare business because they were keen for “particular groups” to be providing family day care, the tribunal was told.
Apparently the normal rules and checks weren’t applied because he was a refugee from Sudan, and the politically correct bureaucrats were deathly afraid of being seen to be “racist”.
By late November 2014, Long Life had been “operating” a care service for six months, saying it was employing 10 educators who cared for more than 30 children. But the Education Directorate had seen no evidence of any staff, or any children, and nor had it properly inspected a principal office or the premises of any carer.
It took almost another 12 months, until October 2015, before the directorate’s patience ran out and it put Long Life out of business for six months. …
But despite the large sums of money that changed hands and Long Life’s inability to prove it was running a child care business, no allegations of misuse of funds had been put to Mr Aguer during the tribunal process.
Why am I surprised? 12 months of doling out money after suspicions were raised, and then no allegation of misuse or, to judge by its omission from the article, any attempt to get the money back. These are our taxes being given away. The bureaucrats are allowing us to be ripped off by people who know to play the racism card. A disgraceful side-effect of PC.
