Greens Senator Barbara Pocock makes a VERY embarrassing mistake in front of Parliament – and is then forced to delete ‘disturbing’ tweet

EXCLUSIVE

A Greens senator has been forced to make a humiliating quid pro quo after questioning government officials about a missing $100 million payment – ​​which turned out to be just $100,000.

An outraged Senator Barbara Pocock relentlessly sought answers during a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday about the alleged nine-figure payment that she claimed was ‘worth a thousand years of nurses’ work’.

Ms Pocock accused Treasury chiefs of paying the huge $100 million fee to Big Four financial services firm KPMG ‘to maintain a relationship with a major consultancy’.

And she was outraged that Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Richard Windeyer simply couldn’t answer her questions about the staggering payment.

He repeatedly told her he was unaware of the details of the payment, prompting the “troubled” senator to quash his “minimalist” response.

But about three hours into Monday’s Joint Corporations and Financial Services Committee hearing, it became clear that the senator’s alleged $100 million “mispayment” never existed.

Instead, the entire contract is worth $100 million, but the “mispayment” that Ms Pocock criticized the bureaucrat about was actually $100,000.

She later tried to clarify this, noting, “I just wanted to clarify something regarding the contract I was talking about.”

‘The KPMG contract with Defense, its total value is $100 million, but the payment made to maintain a relationship or upfront, and when key milestones were not properly met, was approximately $100,000.

“I just wanted to clarify those numbers.”

But despite having egg on her face, Ms Pocock bizarrely continued to make her accusations about the $100 million payment into her X account at 1pm on Monday.

“It is disturbing to hear at today’s investigative hearing about an almost complete lack of oversight of the delivery of contracts by the big four consultants, especially those lucrative defense contracts. KPMG was paid $100 million for work that in some cases was not delivered at all,” she wrote.

The post was removed at 3.30pm on Tuesday following inquiries from Daily Mail Australia.

But a series of left-wing accounts were still sharing videos of the moment she set officials on fire at the time of publication.

KPMG has previously rejected claims it was paid for work it did not complete

A spokesperson for Ms Pocock later told Daily Mail Australia ‘she had a lot of detailed information in front of her at the inquiry hearing, and while trying to make a point about the mismanagement of contracts, she misstated the figure by saying: ‘one hundred -million’ when she meant ‘one hundred thousand’.

“Fortunately, she was able to correct the record as soon as she became aware of the error.”

Ms Pocock had previously questioned whether it was “unethical” for a government department to “retroactively amend a project description or design to justify a payment to a consultant when the original conditions and design have not been met”.

“This is $100 million, that’s 1,000 years’ worth of nurses’ labor in a single payment,” she said.

“It’s a huge amount of money… and you have no idea about a $100 million mispayment… that really bothers me.”

Mr. Windeyer said, “Senator, I’m not trying for a moment to deny the seriousness of what you’re talking about.”

As he was searching for an answer, Ms Pocock interrupted him and said: ‘I really sympathize with you in a new role, but I am hearing a very administrative and technical response to this matter.

“It’s a minimalist response.”

KPMG has previously rejected claims it was paid for work it did not complete.

“There is absolutely no basis for these allegations,” a spokesperson said.

“KPMG firmly rejects any claim of impropriety and can confirm that Defense has not paid a dollar more than it should have for our work on the One Defense Data project.”