Another ex-Qld Labor Minister embroiled in scandal ...

... this time it's former Justice Minister Glen Milne whose company, Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, brought down the Tasmanian Deputy Premier.

Hardly a day goes by without someone connected to the Qld Labor party mired in one scandal or another.

Excerpt from the Australian:

Labor ex-ministers paid themselves $1m in fees

6 December 2007

Two former Labor ministers whose company struck an alleged illegal monopoly deal paid themselves almost $1 million in directors' fees since 2004.

The Australian has obtained a new report by the liquidator of the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, a builder-accreditation company run and part-owned by ex-Tasmanian health minister John White and ex-Queensland justice minister Glen Milliner.

It shows that since 2004, White and Mr Milliner as directors received more than $900,000 between them. Total payments to directors since 2004 amount to $984,442. Aside from White and Mr Milliner, the only other director during this period was David Diprose, in 2004.

Mr Diprose is listed as having received $52,733 of the $984,442.

Payments to directors have topped $200,000 each year since 2004, despite TCC telling the Tasmanian Government when it began operations that it would pay its directors only $20,000 each a year.

TCC liquidator Barry Hamilton compiled the report after a request by Mr Diprose, a one-third owner of the company, who complained directors' payments had been "excessive".

TCC lost its lucrative role in accrediting builders, engineers and architects after revelations last year that White had signed a secret three-year monopoly deal with then infrastructure minister Bryan Green.

Mr Green quit as deputy premier after a police investigation was launched into the deal.

He has since pleaded not guilty to a charge of interfering with an executive officer, while White has pleaded guilty to the same charge.

TCC charged up to 2200 builders and building professionals an average $495 a year for accreditation, giving it an annual income of more than $1million.

TCC lost its lucrative role in September last year. The Government gave the job to a government agency after a KPMG audit concluded that TCC was not providing value for money.

TCC then went into voluntary liquidation.

KPMG questioned the "appropriateness" of some payments to directors, noting White and Mr Milliner paid themselves $200 an hour for consultancy work.

Mr Hamilton, however, wrote to Mr Diprose in September saying he did not agree payments to directors "would be considered excessive". He said that "even if it could be shown that the payments were excessive" the cost of litigation would see only a "marginal improvement" in money returned to shareholders.

"Further, 66 per cent of any recovery would be paid back to Messers White and Milliner in their capacity as (one-third each) shareholders," he wrote.

Mr Diprose confirmed each of the three shareholders had recently received a $100,000 interim dividend as a result of the liquidation. He said under a deed of agreement, White would receive $60,000 for legal costs if he were not convicted of a crime. White and Mr Milliner did not respond to calls.

White's lawyer told the Supreme Court his client had no regular income and urged against a conviction being recorded, as this would see White disqualified from being a company director and threaten his work as a lawyer.

David Porter QC, for White, said his client had been personally and professionally ostracised thanks to media coverage of the TCC deal.

Director of Public Prosecutions Tim Ellis SC did not press Chief Justice Peter Underwood to record a conviction, saying although White pressed for a monopoly clause, it was Mr Green's agreement that "made it of consequence".

Chief Justice Peter Underwood will sentence White on Monday.

Mr Green, whose trial ended on Monday in a hung jury, has been bailed and will appear in court on February 4.

The monopoly deal, signed by Green on February 16, 2006 ran contrary to an anti-monopoly provision in the Building Act.

See - Yet another ex-Beattie Minister in scandal.