8 September 2016

Yvette Berry had repeated warnings about issues with Inanna Inc months before its eventual collapse this week. The Minister now has serious questions to answer about the government’s apparent lack of oversight, Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services Nicole Lawder said today.

“Inanna has been providing valuable services and support for vulnerable women and families for 30 years and its collapse this week is a tragedy. I’m not confident though that the government did all it could leading up to the collapse to protect public funds,” Ms Lawder said.

“Yvette Berry needs to answer questions including:

- Why did Inanna fail to submit a community housing report on time (due in November 2015) and why did the government grant extension after extension for the submission of the report? 

- Why was it not until the end of May 2016 – six months later – that the Human Services Registrar finally issued binding instructions to Inanna? 

- Why didn’t Yvette Berry personally take any action?

“Inanna received a substantial amount of taxpayers’ money, in the order of $2 million a year from the ACT Government. Surely better oversight of this funding arrangement was necessary. Yvette Berry needs to explain the government’s failure to take early action on this issue,” Ms Lawder concluded.

Contact: Joe Prevedello 0402768432