VOUCHERS for an ACT government-backed online retail scheme were redeemed in what Minister for Business Tara Cheyne admitted “would otherwise seemed to be unusual hours”, opening up the ChooseCBR promotion to allegations of rorting. 

Observations tracked online that was shared with the Canberra Liberals found vouchers had been claimed “en masse” between midnight and 6am on two days.

Ms Cheyne was asked to rule out any knowledge of suggestions over a misappropriation of funds during question time in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (June 22).

“There is a process underway and we are looking at the transactions that were undertaken between 18 and 19 June,” she said.

“City News” is not suggesting any wrongdoing by government or an involvement from other parties privy to the scheme that ensured more than $5 million of purchases change hands.

But deputy Liberal leader Giulia Jones pressed the issue on the floor after Ms Cheyne could not rule out under further questioning that taxpayer’s dollars were rorted.

“I have already addressed this in my ministerial statement this morning that we are aware there were genuine businesses undertaking very genuine transactions,” Ms Cheyne said.

The statement said, after Opposition spokesperson for Business, Leanne Castley had called for an independent audit, “there is no indication at this point of any misuse of funds”.

But Ms Cheyne went on to add that “any specific allegations of misuse should be reported to the ACT government so that they can be checked”.

Before the opposition benches could question the legitimacy of purchases, Ms Cheyne had earlier addressed after-hours purchases that included processing of the vouchers manually and separately when the ChooseCBR website had crashed while one business was known to publicise the taking of online orders “late into the night” last Friday.

“While this is anecdotal evidence, it does point to some of the legitimate business practices that were occurring, which did see vouchers claimed at what would otherwise seem to be unusual hours,” she said in her ministerial statement.

“That said, I am very willing for an evaluation to look closely at these transactions.”

An “independent” review, as part of the government process, will look into any wrongdoing in the scheme that will be addressed “by the last sitting day” of the assembly this year.

But Ms Cheyne said on the floor it “may be possible” to register more than one email and one mobile phone under the scheme that could indicate individuals were taking advantage of offers of up to 50 per cent off items.

Ms Cheyne also believed “the risk was considered to be low” in terms of the overall value of the territory scheme that cost little more than $2 million to stimulate the economy after a number of small business struggled to survive the pandemic restrictions last year.

Registration for a similar program to one in NSW that used an integrated services app and can legitimise identification was ruled out because fears it may “have cost more than the scheme” in administration costs over the amount of time it would take to check manually.

“What we did put in place in regard to verification was common, right across businesses, particularly in retail stores,” Ms Cheyne said.