The Auditor General says she is concerned about transparency issues after the state government initially denied her office access to information about its legal fees relating to a failing coal mine.
Auditor General Caroline Spencer says the state government denied her office access to information relating to Griffin Coal 's insolvency.After the Auditor General spoke to the media, the government disclosed the amount in Parliament.
In parliament, he said it was $543,670 for the services of 19 solicitors and three clerks who worked on various issues relating to theThe government's initial refusal to disclose the additional legal costs and nature of the services was brought to the attention of the Auditor General's office.The office found that commercial-in-confidence did not apply to the amount paid to Ashurst for legal advice.
"We weren't able to do our job in relation to the contracts because we were denied access to the contracts for service," she said.Once a source of pride and prosperity, a foreign-owned Western Australian coal mine is now a byword for debt and despair."Normally when we act as a veracity check on minister's claims around why they can't provide information to Parliament, we don't normally speak to media about it," she told ABC Radio Perth.
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