Western Australia’s Auditor General releases a report criticising how the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation assesses contaminated sites. The audit finds that some high-priority cases are assigned to employees who are no longer working for the watchdog at the time the assessments are conducted.
The findings relate to the department’s processes for managing and evaluating contaminated land, raising questions about whether cases are being handled with appropriate oversight and accountability. Across the outlets, the core issue is the same: staff allocation practices do not align with current employment records for at least some significant files.
The reports characterise the Auditor General’s assessment as “scathing,” focusing on the mismatch between who is listed as responsible for work and who is actually employed. While the outlets describe the department’s performance in similar terms, they provide limited additional detail beyond the central finding about misassigned high-priority assessments and the implications for the integrity of the contaminated-sites review system.
