Senior Victorian public servants hid loss of up to $285m from Covid grants given to ineligible businesses

Whistleblowers applauded as Ibac finds ‘decisions were made to withhold information about the magnitude of the loss’Senior public servants in one state covered up losses suspected to be worth hundreds of millions arising from flawed Covid-19 business support payments, an investigation has found. During the pandemic, the Victorian government spent an estimated $257m on support grants to 9,000 ineligible businesses.