Fuel Cash Expended
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday August 6, 2008
PETROL money for Meals on Wheels volunteers announced yesterday by the NSW Government may have been unwittingly spent on other items.
Premier Morris Iemma said yesterday that the Government would pump an extra $6.7 million into volunteer organisations to subsidise volunteers for the rising costs of fuel."Today's extra funding for our dedicated volunteers is critical to our State Plan strategy to boost volunteer numbers by 10 per cent by 2016," Mr Iemma said.But the joy was short lived yesterday for Newcastle and District Meals on Wheels manager Kathleen Troughton, who was informed by the government's Department of Ageing and Disability that the money had already been delivered."We received about $13,000 at the end of the financial year and that's the money they are talking about," Ms Troughton said. She said the Meals on Wheels was not originally told the money was for petrol and some of it had been spent on a new freezer.Ms Troughton said the balance of the money may be able to be directed to petrol.While Mr Iemma was firm yesterday in his announcement that the money was for petrol, a spokesman for the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services Kristina Keneally said it was really up to the organisations how the funds were spent."I understand Meals on Wheels services were advised the extra money could be used to provide additional support for volunteers," the spokesman said."Organisations like Meals on Wheels are in the best position to know where and how to spend the extra money directed to them by the Iemma Government, and that's why we gave them discretion."Information on how the extra cash injection will be spent by organisations needs to be sought from them."
© 2008 Newcastle Herald
