The Fyles Government has announced a new taxpayer-funded scheme to encourage Aboriginal participation in the workforce, similar in scope to the former Indigenous Employment Provisional Scheme that was shut down in 2017 following widespread fraud with millions still unaccounted for.

The new program is called the Aboriginal Economic Participation Framework, which will again “support non-Aboriginal Territorians and businesses to provide employment, training and education, and to develop partnerships and joint ventures, to assist … Aboriginal employees and Aboriginal business enterprises”.

The previous IEPS program, which was set up to provide government funds to local construction companies to employ Indigenous workers, was shut down by the Gunner government in August 2017 after as much as $126 million was rorted through alleged falsified Indigenous employment claims by the companies.

It remains the largest known fraud ever perpetrated in the Territory, with possibly six companies referred to police and two facing charges in 2018. However, only one small company, that was found guilty of rorting $200,000 in 2019, was ever prosecuted over the fraud.

The new Aboriginal Economic Participation Framework – designed to provide taxpayer cash through grants and procurement contracts to encourage Aboriginal “participation in the Territory economy” was announced at the bottom of a press release by Business Minister Paul Kirby on Tuesday.

Specific details of how the new program would work and what fraud prevention controls would be imposed were not provided in the statement and surprisingly neither Mr Kirby nor Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler responded to the NT Independent’s questions seeking more details, including where the current investigation into the IEPS program stands and what lessons the government has learned from that flawed program.

Auditor General Julie Crisp found in a 2018 audit of the IEPS program that an inter-agency taskforce struck by the NT Government to investigate the fraud had not met for five straight months and was comprised of at least one government employee with a conflict of interest. She also found that a year after the program had been shuttered due to the fraud, that the government had only investigated 10 per cent of all claims.

She had previously discovered the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics had made fundamental errors when designing the program in 2014, that included a lack of proper oversight, no fraud prevention controls, improper record keeping and no central person having responsibility.

As of April 2019 – the last time anyone publicly mentioned the IPES – the government still not know how much money had been rorted from the program due to the improper record keeping and delays investigating the fraud.

The IEPS program is still advertised on DIPL’s website with no mention of the fraud. The department said in late 2018 that it could take “a number of years” to determine who defrauded the program and by how much. It appears the new AEPF will be run through the Department of Business but that has not been confirmed.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’s office also did not respond to questions.

Mr Kirby’s statement on the new program provided few details other than his claim that it “aligns with similar schemes from other jurisdictions including the Commonwealth and will ensure opportunities for participation of Aboriginal Territorians in our economy are maximized”.

That will be achieved through the “activation of NT Government procurement and grants”, private sector “commitments”, the “development of Aboriginal businesses and community-controlled organisations” and Indigenous “workforce development”, the statement said.

The Fyles Government also announced its “Aboriginal Procurement Policy” yesterday, which it says will “increase equitable access to procurement activities” for Aboriginal Business Enterprises in the NT.