Australia

The Auditor-General will investigate the Coalition government’s $270 billion weapons build-up and how the Defence Department is managing the massive infusion of taxpayers’ money. Auditor-General Grant Hehir told Parliament’s Public Works Committee on Wednesday he had included Defence’s Integrated Investment Program (IIP) in the Australian National Audit Office’s draft program for 2021.

The looming audit follows a request from Labor over cost blowouts with the future frigate and submarine programs.

“The proposed performance audit would examine the Department of Defence’s management of the IIP since its implementation in 2016, including the framework underpinning the program and the governance arrangements in place,” Mr Hehir told Labor deputy leader Richard Marles in a letter on March 19.

The investment program outlines the Defence Department’s planned acquisition schedule of new weapons and platforms over the next decade and beyond....MORE