{
  "id": 14599356,
  "title": "Senior Victorian public servants hid loss of up to $285m from Covid grants given to ineligible businesses",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/senior-victorian-public-servants-hid-loss-of-up-to-285m-from-covid-14599356",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-15T02:39:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian Australia",
    "slug": "the-guardian-australia",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/15/vic-gov-hid-285m-loss-from-covid-grants-corruption-watchdog-ibac-finds-ntwnfb"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "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 of dollars 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…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "ABC News AU",
        "title": "COVID-19 grants paid to 9,000 ineligible Victorian businesses",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/covid-19-grants-paid-to-9-000-ineligible-victorian-businesses",
        "published": "2026-10-15T00:30:03.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Guardian",
        "title": "Senior Victorian public servants hid loss of up to $285m from Covid grants given to ineligible businesses",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/senior-victorian-public-servants-hid-loss-of-up-to-285m-from-covid",
        "published": "2026-10-15T02:39:06.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}