The story regarding unspent funds received by
Forestry Tasmania as part of the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement TCFA was
immediately rebutted by FT’s Hans Drielsma (HERE)
who denied any hoarding of funds saying a prudent plan was in place to spend
the remaining $22 million, a figure from internal FT spreadsheets obtained
under RTI and referred to by Sue Neales.
But the truth is much worse, if one chooses to
believe Mike Blake, the Auditor General. The TCFA future commitments far exceed
the available cash on hand. There is an eerie resemblance between FT’s use of
TCFA funds to operate and Mr Aird’s use of the SPA account to fund current
Government programs.
Let’s start at the beginning.