Covid wage subsidy mostly passes audit

The Auditor-General, Parliament’s spending watchdog, has given a mostly clean bill of health to the $13 billion Covid-19 wage subsidy. However, he was critical that followup checks on some claimants were sufficient to detect fraud. The subsidy involved payments to employers who had suffered a revenue downfall because of the pandemic in return for an agreement not to lay off staff while taking the payment. While successful at keeping unemployment low, it was one of the most expensive pieces of economic stimulus in recent history. Auditor-General John Ryan has been looking through the scheme, analysing it for probity concerns. While he was mostly happy, he said in some instances ineligible businesses might have received payments.