The Victorian auditor-general has delivered a scathing report into government funding allocated to regional areas, saying there is no way to know if the money had made a difference.
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The report looked into programs like the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund.
"Having administered more than $1 billion in allocated funds since 2011, Regional Development Victoria still cannot reliably determine whether their grants have improved economic or social outcomes directly or indirectly, or whether any benefits have been sustained beyond the immediate injection of funds into a community," the report stated.
"There is a high risk that its next evaluation, scheduled for 2021, also will not provide the answers to these questions."
Consultants that have tried to evaluate the funds since 2009 have found the grants did not have targets and there was little consistency between the objective of the money and the actual use.
"Many projects are time sensitive and rely on RJIF funding to proceed, but Regional Development Victoria is slow to process grants," the report stated.
"Overall, grants take nine to 12 months to assess and process ... A project cannot commence until Regional Development Victoria and the funded organisation sign the grant agreement and the long lead times caused significant dissatisfaction among grant recipients."
The Victorian government used 58.5 per cent of the fund for its election commitments, but the auditor-general said there was no evidence that social and economic data was used to decide where the rest of the money was allocated.
Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy criticised the government over the report, saying it showed country communities were missing out.
"(Premier) Daniel Andrews isn't willing to make the same strong investment in the future of our community, instead we've had to drag him kicking and screaming for every cent under this city-centric Labor government," he said.
"It shouldn't be this hard."
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