The Commonwealth Auditor-General has issued a report which is highly critical of federal funding arrangements for Adelaide’s desalination plant.
It said two grants totalling $328 million were approved by the Federal Government in 2009 but proper grants processes were not followed.
The report said the second of two funding proposals from the South Australian Government was assessed and rejected by Infrastructure Australia as lacking economic merit.
But the funding was approved after then-premier Mike Rann made representations to Canberra.
Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham, who initiated the investigation, said there had been a vote-grabbing exercise by Labor.
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