A damning auditor-general's report into a NSW grants scheme at the centre of pork-barrelling allegations has described it as "deficient" and "lacking integrity".
Auditor-general Margaret Crawford has found 96 per cent of grants available from the $250 million Stronger Communities Fund were allocated to projects based in Coalition-held seats.
The former premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously conceded that grants from the scheme were used to try to shore up Coalition-held seats in the lead up to the last election, but said the practice was "not unique" to her government.
In her report to parliament, Ms Crawford said the scheme's guidelines "lacked the necessary information to safeguard against biased or subjective assessment".
The report paints a picture of chaotic decision making, where funding for projects was determined by Ms Berekijlian, her deputy John Barilaro and the minister for local government.
Decisions were then communicated by their staff through emails to the Office of Local Government, which was tasked with administering the scheme.
Ms Crawford wrote that these emails contained "little or no information about the basis for the council or project selection" and that funds were allocated "without questioning or recording the basis for selection".
While the local government minister was responsible for distributing the funds, he only approved two of the 24 projects that received money — with the rest identified by the offices of Ms Berejiklian and Mr Barilaro.
Ms Crawford concluded that the exclusion of information and the lack of formality in those approvals "prevent accountability and transparency over the government's approach to selecting councils for funding".
In October 2020 a parliamentary inquiry heard that Ms Berejiklian's office had physically shredded and then digitally deleted documents relating to the Stronger Communities Fund.
Her staff gave evidence they had sent emails saying Ms Berejiklian had "approved" or "signed off" on projects.
But one staffer told the inquiry that was just a "turn of phrase" and that the then premier was not technically approving the payments as that "was not a role she had under the program".
A month later Ms Berejiklian told reporters she was only "consulted" and "provided advice" on the grants, but she conceded the way the scheme was used amounted to pork barrelling.
"It's not something the community likes ... but it's an accusation I will wear," she said.
"It's not an illegal practice. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time by every government."
