Secrecy around a huge $20bn fund for government grants, Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), makes it a corruption incubator: Rex Patrick

Let the light shine

The MRFF is an important public health initiative. It involves the expenditure of very large amounts of taxpayers’ money. The public have a right to examine the processes used in the awarding of grants and watch over the execution of the program, especially after grants have been awarded.

Those charged with managing the MRFF are likely to perform better when they know they are being watched. Those being watched are less likely to engage in malfeasance, misfeasance or wrongdoing. Conflicts of interest and failures of governance and process would be exposed, and indeed avoided because of the prospect of scrutiny.

The people at the Department and the National Health and Medical Research Council don’t seem to agree. They’re quite happy running a corruption incubator. But they’re about to be given a dose of transparency reality.

Source: A sickening thought: medical fund secrecy is a corruption incubator – Michael West