Why was the Public Trustee building at 25 Franklin Street sold for $7.6million (no public tender) a short time after receipt of an independent valuation of $9.37million?
Don't you just hate those vague questions.....they just stump us every time!
And all that extensive & expensive anti-earthquaking works completed not long before was, I suppose, a fortunate coincidence for Javier Moll. New owner alert...better check the cracks that were filled-in with elastic polymer. I stood and watched whilst knocking off my salmon and wholemeal bread sanger!
Previous two Posts I drew attention to the final 2009 meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee, South Australian Parliamentary Select Committee.
I have written about the behaviours of our most senior state bureaucrats. Too many times a Government takes it in the neck only to find out later it did not have all the facts.
I have eyeballed enough over the years to suggest, no, to state categorically that some Bureaucrats will relay to 'their masters' only what they care to relay.
I know some of the following should include contexts, but I am merely giving you a broad-brush picture of an embedded bureaucratic language. And, certainly some instances of, well, I call them smartass comments!
Mr Jerome Maguire, CEO of Justice and the Attorney-General's Department (reporting directly to AG Michael Atkinson) had been on notice for ONE YEAR to resurface with specific answers. From reading the transcript, I certainly wonder where he thought he was going on Friday the 13th of November 2009. A two-hour get together. Twelve months later.
My advice is
My advice is
I'm sorry, sir, I do not have that information with me
I don't have an idea of that budget
but my understanding is
I can't confirm either way
My advice is
I would assume
My advice is
I do not know the name of it; I do not have it with me
We can't remember who it was
It is our understanding
I don't have the information here. I don't have the breakdown, I'm sorry
I can't. I don't even want to take a stab at it. I have no idea, really the extent of it. So, I would like to get back to you about that
Well, you're telling the story.
I can't tell you that date
I don't know. I will have to find out
We don't have any knowledge about how that would occur
I've never seen the submission
I don't believe that's a relevant question
I can't recall
I can't recall
I don't have those costs with me
I have no other information
My understanding is
I think it is
I do not have the costs here
I will take that on notice
It does not really interest me what his companies are, quite frankly
I am talking in generalities here
I do not actually know what the contract said
but I haven't got the detail
I'm sorry, I don't have that
I have them here, I think
OK. Here is a piece of the November 2008 transcript that put Mr CEO of Justice Jerome 'well, you're telling the story' Maguire on notice 12 months ago:
3676 The CHAIRPERSON: We may have a discussion about that on another occasion. On 16 May 2007, the Attorney-General, under his own signature, approved the sale of the Public Trustee building. Whether you need to go off and confirm whether or not he did or did not, they are the facts of the matter. Are you aware that, in March 2007 (two months prior to the approval by the Attorney-General), the Public Trustee commissioned a valuation from Colliers International which valued the Public Trustee building (which the Attorney-General sold to Mr Moll for $7.6 million) at $9.37 million; that is, nearly $1.7 million higher?
Mr MAGUIRE: I am aware that evaluations were undertaken by the Public Trustee, and that is a requirement of the Public Trustee in the disposal of assets. You obviously have some information that I do not have in front of me, so I cannot be precise about the valuations. What I can tell you is that it is my understanding that the subsequent transfer and lease-back was commercially neutral to the Public Trustee and, essentially, the Public Trustee's concerns were met.
3677 The CHAIRPERSON: We can digest that in a moment. Were you aware that, when the Attorney-General approved the sale of this property on 17 May 2007, the Public Trustee—which was within your portfolio—had an independent valuation of the property by Colliers at $9.37 million, $1.7 million higher than the Attorney-General sold the building to Mr Moll?
Mr MAGUIRE: Again, I sound like I am repeating myself.
Mr MAGUIRE: Again, I sound like I am repeating myself, but I understand that there was an independent evaluation. I do not know the numbers; I can confirm them with you. If there was a differential between what it was purchased for and the initial valuation, I can come back to you with more detail about that and the reason for the differential.
I look forward to November of 2010. Maybe an answer will surface as to why a $9.37million taxpayer-owned building was sold to a private company for $7.6million without public tender.
