By Cam Lucadou-Wells
The Springvale-based Cambodian Association of Victoria received “substantial grants” from government departments and agencies under ministers allied to the ALP’s Moderate Labor faction, a Operation Watts anti-corruption inquiry found.
The association is led by president Youhorn Chea – a former Greater Dandenong mayor and described in the report as a long-standing ALP member and “recruiter”.
When asked to respond to the Operation Watts draft report, the CAV did not comment on the “adverse comments and opinions”.
Mr Chea told IBAC that “the decision to make no comments should not be taken to mean (he) accepted the matters raised in the draft report”.
He told the Star Journal he had been legally advised not to comment further, though stressing “we’ve done nothing wrong”.
ML-aligned MPs employed “several executive members” and “individuals related to them” from CAV and two other community groups.
Mr Chea was identified in the report as been employed by the ML faction’s leader and MP Adem Somyurek as well as by a former MP aligned with ML.
A relative of Mr Chea was also employed by Mr Somyurek and Clarinda MP Meng Heang Tak.
The relative also received salaries from two State grants received by the CAV.
They were paid $35,037 from a $80,000 State grant for preventing family violence in the Cambodian community.
They provided counselling to Cambodian men and women despite not being trained or qualified as a counsellor, the report stated.
“(Mr Chea) maintained that the officer had considerable experience, including overseas, that was useful in their work at the CAV.”
The relative also received $17,349 salary payments from a State gambling harm-prevention grant, though having no role in delivering the project.
Mr Chea told the inquiry that his relative worked on “other matters for CAV”, the report stated.
Under former Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott’s watch in 2014-’18, the CAV received five grants totalling $228,593.
Mr Scott told the inquiry that he’d been advised there was no conflict arising over one CAV grant because he wasn’t involved in considering the application’s merits.
He resigned as Minister in 2020 after being accused by a media report of doling out nearly $1 million of grants to groups linked to “alleged branch stackers and ALP staffers”.
The inquiry made no findings on whether Mr Scott breached ministerial or MP codes of conduct.
It was possible, but there was no evidence, that he employed factional operatives and their relatives engaged in political-party activity in work time, the report stated.
The CAV also received Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation grants totalling $77,250, which was under former Minister Marlene Kairouz’s portfolio at the time.
The grants were approved by the VRGF, not Ms Kairouz.
Mr Scott and Ms Kairouz, both Moderate Labor faction allies of Mr Somyurek, resigned as Ministers in 2020.
Operation Watts found Ms Kairouz breached codes of conduct as an MP and a Minister, ensuring her staff were “used to pursue the faction’s internal party agenda”.
The report stated that faction members including Adem Somyurek “improperly sought to influence the grant process”.
“Factional allies could expect greater access and could exert greater pressure on ministerial officers to help them on grant processes.”
But the inquiry didn’t establish that the ministers awarded any grants improperly, or that the grants were used for branch stacking.
There were also “deficiencies” in how the grant funding was acquitted by the CAV.
The report also noted that CAV receipts and expenses did not always accord with the related grants, such as $6,886 to a ‘volunteer’ for a radio broadcasting program and $3825 to fly three Cambodian singers to and from Melbourne.
Mr Chea told the inquiry that the well-known performers helped to attract more people to functions in which the CAV could provide information about its community programs.
He could not recall any formal audits of grants from funding body Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the Auditor-General or the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
“After we finish the project we send them a report,” he told the inquiry.
