Bleijie rejects scathing report on boot camps
FORMER LNP Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has rejected a scathing report criticising his decisions on youth boot camps across Queensland, including the camps at Rockhampton and the Fraser Coast.
Auditor-General Andrew Greaves' report revealed Mr Bleijie chose more expensive companies to run the youth boot camps and went against advice of other panel members.
Favouritism, lack of transparency and weakened accountability were some of the terms used in the report.
Mr Bleijie rejected the criticisms, saying a price could not be placed on community safety and that the cheapest option was not always the best.
"I wasn't going to put a price on the safety of Queenslanders," he said.
Mr Greaves' report said the company Mr Bleijie chose for the Fraser Coast boot camp contract did not represent the best value for money and that the state had paid $5550 more per participant there than it would have under the panel's preferred tenderer.
The report said Mr Bleijie had rejected the panel's recommendation and awarded the contract to Oz Adventures - a company the panel had deemed unsuitable.
It was ranked 10th out of 12 respondents on the list and was the most expensive.
"No documentation has been made available to us that demonstrates how this decision was made," Mr Greaves' report said.
Mr Bleijie said the company handling the Fraser Coast boot camp - Oz Adventures - had already had a camp operating and that the local communities and MPs supported his decisions at the time.
