The head of Scott Morrison's department found that then-cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie displayed "some significant shortcomings" in her oversight of a grants program that later became known as the "sports rorts scandal".
In 2020, Mr Morrison called in the then-head of the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens, to review Senator McKenzie's handling of the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program.
That review — which found Senator McKenzie had breached ministerial standards in not disclosing her membership of a gun club that received funding — prompted her to quit cabinet.
At the time, the government refused to release Mr Gaetjens's full report, insisting it was a cabinet document.
Following a Freedom of Information request from Australian Associated Press (AAP), the full report has now been released.
In his report, Mr Gaetjens said that, while Senator McKenzie's personal benefit to the gun club receiving a grant was negligible, the failure to disclose and manage a possible conflict of interest was a breach of standards.
His investigation followed an auditor-general's finding that the $100 million program for community sports infrastructure had a bias towards marginal government seats and electorates that the Coalition was targeting in the 2019 election.
It later emerged that Senator McKenzie's office had colour coded the nearly 2,000 grant applications according to the party that held the electorate.
Senator McKenzie — who returned to cabinet less than 18 months after she quit — has repeatedly defended her handling of the grants program. However, she said, she had quit cabinet because she should have disclosed her membership.
Mr Gaetjens wrote in his report that it only covered ministerial standards and not whether the minister had legal authority to provide the final approval for applications.
In his report, he said he had not found evidence that political considerations were the primary factor for how grants were allocated.
However, he criticised the lack of transparency in the program.
"This lack of transparency, coupled with the significant divergences between projects recommended by Sport Australia and those approved by the minister, has given rise to concerns about the decision-making," he wrote.
“Those submitting grant funding applications had, in my view, a right to more fully understand the basis on which the funding decisions were being made.”
