Chris Minns Mafia a one-term joke in cahoots with Robodebt 2.0 Sergeant at Arms, Greg Wells

Current NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns must be corrupt to know about all Service NSW’s extortionate scam and to sit back and do nothing.

Minns has thus become a one-time premier, fully accountable for Robodebt 2.0.

Minns:  “The people of NSW have voted for a fresh start..Friends, the people of New South Wales voted to put in a government that would put people, people, at the heart of all decision making, and we will not let them down..Also a huge thank you to the Prime Minister of this country, Anthony Albanese.  I don’t know where he is gone, but Anthony, thanks for everything.”  (Minns Election Speech, 25th March 2023]

Published in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper, 17th December 2024:

Audit on Covid biz grants a sick joke – ‘Another Robodebt’ fiasco

EXCLUSIVE

by James O’Doherty, State Political Editor

‘Small businesses and sole traders are being told by Service NSW to repay money they never received,while the agency is also shaking down thousands of people who wrongly received Covid grants due to bureaucratic failings.

Under a compliance program launched by the Minns government, Service NSW has audited tens of thousands of businesses who received “micro-business support payments” due to e
2021 Covid lockdowns, clawing back $13.2m.

Minns Mafia’s dodgy Sergeant at Arms, Service NSW CEO Greg Wells with keys to Revenue NSW 

 

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that sole traders who never applied for nor received the grants have now been targeted in the crackdown.

One trader said he had a call “out of the blue” demanding he repay more than $10,000 in “micro-business” grants he never received.

‘Service NSW contractors have been demanding small busi­nesses and sole traders repay money they never received, while shaking down thousands of people who wrongly re­ceived Covid grants due to the agency’s own failings.

Under a compliance program launched by the Minns government, Service NSW has audited tens of thousands of businesses who received “micro-business support payments” due to the 2021 Covid lockdowns, clawing back $13.2m.

Businesses were eligible for the $1500 fortnightly pay­ments if they had a turnover of between $30,000 and $75,000 in the 2019-20 financial year and had suffered a 30 per cent decline in turnover.

However, The Daily Tele­ graph can reveal that sole traders who never applied for nor received the grants have now been targeted in the compliance crackdown.

One sole trader from Kings­ford, who spoke on the condi­tion of anonymity, said he got a call “out of the blue” earlier this year, demanding that he repay more than $10,000 in “micro-business” grants which he never received.

He said he was called or emailed “more than 20 times” about the alleged debt.
Service NSW ended up dropping his case, after he re­ peatedly asked for. evidence that he had money to repay.

However, he said he could understand if people were intimidated into paying back money they did not owe.

“A feeling of guilt wells up in you.  Every few days you’d get a call from a different person saying ‘you really don’t want us to refer the matter on’,” he said.  Meanwhile, 2300 businesses given money they never should have received have now been told they also need to repay the grants.

When the compliance crack­ down discovered the payments had been wrongly made, con­ tractors and Service NSW staff started demanding it be repaid. One woman received
$15,000 in grant money from Service NSW even though she was not eligible for the funding. The woman, who also did not want to be identified, did not meet the minimum turnover threshold, which she .said she told Service NSW at the time.

“I was told there was no issue with my application at all,” she said.

She was then targeted in the compliance -crackdown, with Service NSW demanding she repay the money.

“The whole thing has been another Robodebt rort recov­ery situation,” she said.

Her debt was eventually “ex­cused” due to hardship, after she provided a letter from her doctor.

NSW Opposition customer service and digital government spokesman James Griffin blamed budget cuts for the shambolic audit process.

“These demands from Ser­vice NSW would make the Grinch blush,” he said. “Chris Minns needs to step in here.”

In a statement, a Service NSW spokeswoman said the compliance checks identified “23,000 fraudulent applica­tions and prevented more than $52m in suspected fraud”.

 

(EDITOR’S NOTE:  May be, but that was from criminal syndicates identified by Service NSW that had hacked into its Service NSW’s online grant programme soon after the NSW Berejiklian Liberal Government offered its ‘2021 COVID-19 Micro Business Grant’ on the Service NSW ‘secure’ website portal. [Watch Police press release below]

 

NSW Police Taskforce Sainsbery 2021

 

That portal was set up under the watch of that government’s Chief Information Officer, one Greg Wells, who in November 2022 was demoted to CEO of one of its departments, notorious Service NSW).

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITORIAL (page 20):

Give back what you weren’t ever given

 

‘Our Covid ordeal is largely over, at least so far as confinements and medical processes go.

But both the economic and administrative aftershocks of Covid are still working through the system.

In the first case, we routinely observe businesses and sometimes entire economic sectors that are struggling to fully rebuild.

And in the second case, we now have an example of administrative excess that is making the process of rebuilding even more difficult

As The Daily Telegraph reports, contractors working with Service NSW have been demanding that small businesses and sole traders repay Covid-era money they never received.

At the same time, Service NSW has been putting pressure on thousands of people who, through no fault of their own, received Covid grants.

There’s an additional third category, which deserves notice in the global history of inexplicable bureaucratic bungles. Some sole traders have been hit up for repayments on grants that they never even applied for or received.

The Daily Telegraph spoke with one sole trader who copped a demand for $10,000. Trouble was, he’d never been given the 10 grand in the first place.

What a lame Christmas gift.’

 

References:

[1]   ‘Audit on Covid biz grants a sick joke – ‘Another Robodebt’ fiasco‘, 17th December 2024, by James O’Doherty, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, ^https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/another-robodebt-fiasco-servicensw-chasing-money-it-never-paid/news-story/0c9917687cf820423d344c26cc0bb0fe (access by subscription)

[2]   ‘Meet NSW’s new govt CIO – Public service stalwart appointed‘, 2nd March 2018 by Justin Hendry, IT News, ^https://www.itnews.com.au/news/meet-nsws-new-govt-cio-486173 (access by subscription only)

[3]  ‘NSW govt technology chief steps down to lead Service NSW‘, 30th November 2022, by Justin Hendry, Editor, ^https://www.innovationaus.com/nsw-govt-technology-chief-steps-down-to-lead-service-nsw/