The Australian government’s cyber experts were not consulted on the awarding of a $23 million grant to an industry body without tender to train thousands of “cyber wardens”, while Treasury has yet to detail how it managed any conflicts of interest in awarding the grant without a competitive process.
In the May Budget the Albanese government allocated $23.4 million to Treasury for a small business cyber wardens program to be delivered by the Council of Small Business Organisations (COSBOA).
The peak body will receive all the funding to train 60,000 wardens within three years in an effort to build a “cyber-smart small business workforce”.
Want to know how this story ends?
Become a subscriber for complete access to all stories on InnovationAus.com and our daily newsletter.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.