We welcomed the news today that 35 search warrants were issued to search the premises of insulation companies suspected of fraud under the former Home Insulation Program (see announcement from Greg Combet). Those companies that deliberately defrauded homeowners and the taxpayer deserve to be prosecuted. It's a pity that many of the owners of these companies have already fled overseas with the millions of dollars paid into their bank accounts by a Government and the former Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) gobsmackingly incompetent and out-of-touch with the real world. Our anger of the handling of the Home Insulation Program is well documented, both on this website and in the media, so we won't go into it again here.
What worries and angers us is the letter that is bound to arrive in the next few days from the Government asking for repayment of monies on certain jobs that were deemed to have "failed" the inspection regime. We are happy to repay monies for any jobs that deemed "dodgy" and due to our use of subcontractors (as per the rest of the industry) we have come across a number of installations that wecould have been done better. We have rectified as many as we have become aware of, and we continue to address issues as they are brought to our attention. Indeed, we feel good about the fact that we are still here for our customers, addressing issues and going out of our way to support them; many customers have found that their installers have simply disappeared. But this isn't the issue that annoys us.
What does annoy us is the inconsistency in the inspection regime. We've had hundreds of homes that we installed insulation in audited by Government approved auditors. Of those reports that we have seen, not one audit report has been consistent. Some reports have pulled us up on installing over electrical wiring - some have not. Some have pulled us up for installing downlight covers - some have pulled us up for not installing downlight covers. Some have pulled us up for installing over existing insulation less than R0.5 in value - some have not. The inconsistency is staggering. It's not the fault of the inspectors - they have a difficult and unpleasant job! It's the fault of the bureaucrats and accountants who were charged with administering the audit program - they have failed the taxpayer again.
Recent reports about the inspection regime have made us even more angry. Rumour has it that some inspection contractors are being incentivised to find faults with installations. We've heard that inspectors are paid $200 for a compliant installation audit, and $400 for a non-compliant installation audit! How many properties do you think will be found to have compliant installation? Not many!
We've raised these issues time and again with the Department of Climate Change in our correspondence and they have never acknowledged the issues. They clearly don't have a clue - and we should know - our Managing Director was a Commonwealth Public Servant for 5 years! We won't give up fighting for justice, but at the same time we know we're fighting a losing battle. The early cessation of the Home Insulation Program has already cost our business well in excess of $1 million - and contrary to popular belief, we never made a cent from it. It seems that it is going to cost us even more when our 1 of 2000 letters arrives tomorrow.
