Antinuclear

Adani will bankroll the jobs of local government staff tasked with assessing activities around its Queensland mine proposal — a deal anti-corruption campaigners say raises “serious questions” about independent oversight.

The Indian mining giant has struck an unusual deal to pay up to $1.15 million in wages, housing and vehicle costs for four Isaac Regional Council employees to deal with the “extraordinary workload” created by the Carmichael coal project.

Anti-corruption think tank Transparency International Australia called the scenario unprecedented, saying it would raise questions about the independence of council decisions and perceptions of conflict of interest.

But the council said the staff were under its direction and not controlled by Adani.

It said it was protecting ratepayers from bearing costs for a transnational corporation.

A council resolution last October stated that negotiations with Adani led to the company committing to “fund certain positions within council … to address the extraordinary workloads generated for council by the Adani projects”.

According to council minutes, jobs for an executive and legal support officer, a senior engineering manager and two field officers would be “fully funded (including labour and other on-costs, housing and vehicle costs) by Adani”.

‘Potential for conflict of interest’

Transparency International chief executive Serena Lillywhite said the arrangement raised “real questions around the perception or the potential for a conflict of interest, and for undue industry influence, and certainly questions around the independence of decisions being made by the council”.

She said it took the risk of regulatory capture to “a whole new level”.

“When you have a situation whereby people who are employed by the council but are in fact being paid for by Adani to undertake responsibilities and tasks — such as legal support and compliance with contractual arrangements, engineering support to check whether or not there is compliance with standards regarding engineering or environmental aspects — it does create some real concerns.

“You can understand how at best there would be a perception that there is not an arm’s-length arrangement between the council and the company.”

……… No other council has similar arrangement

However, a spokeswoman for the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) said it was not aware of any other such arrangement between a council and a company where funding was tied to jobs involving oversight of the company’s activities.

The ABC has confirmed this is the case with Rockhampton and Townsville councils, which struck their own deals with Adani that they would pay about $30 million for its airport in return for local hiring guarantees……….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-28/adani-to-pay-for-isaac-council-staff-working-on-carmichael-mine/9801988?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%3a8935&user_id=b5c7b9f32422565bb60e137da05ce4996754bac02a16a453ac7a4213430ce2e8&WT.tsrc=email&WT.mc_id=Email%7c%7c8935&utm_content=ABCNewsmail_topstories_articlelink