An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners raised a number of allegations about the Perth Mint. But what does any of this actually mean, and should WA taxpayers really be worried?
Four Corners alleged the mint failed to register more than 5,000 transactions over just a nine-month period.
Gold bars can never be made 100 per cent pure, so there will always be some other material that makes up bullions.Perth Mint CEO Jason Waters explained on Tuesday that it was standard for refiners, like the mint, to keep their gold as close to 99.99 per cent as possible – because any gold over that threshold wasn't paid for by the customer.The mint's processes produced 99.996 per cent pure gold, meaning about 0.
Mr Waters was appointed CEO in 2022, after the alleged compliance failures and after the gold doping program had ceased following concerns raised by SGE.The issue isn't just that the Perth Mint supplied the SGE with gold below the standard it requested, but that it did not reveal the scale of the issue to the exchange.
"For a $600,000 [saving per year] benefit to risk a reputation of delivering sub-standard gold to a major client, a major exchange, really reflects an organisation that just doesn't have its hands correctly applied to dealing with risk," he said. The concerns around the doping program were addressed by the mint in September 2021, but that wasn't communicated to Bill Johnston, the minister responsible for the mint, until January 2022.
Mr McGowan was told even later, only finding out on Monday evening, the same night Four Corners aired the allegations.
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