“The money would be better spent elsewhere,” the Singleton resident says.

“Rather than paying for university graduates to complete traffic controller or bar tending courses to make them job ready, it could be put into Medicare.”

The former ORS employment consultant, who now runs her own cleaning and photography business in Singleton, recently appeared on an ABC Four Corners expose into how the privatisation of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) in 1998 has done little to help the unemployed.

Evidence presented during the program indicated not much has changed since a damning high-level inquiry in 2011-12 by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations revealed only 40 per cent of claims made by job agencies could be verified.

Mrs Purvis says during her time in the industry she was encouraged to probe her clients with the eventual aim of classifying them as Highly Disadvantaged.

“This meant we would get more money from the government to train them and once all the money was spent on referring them to various services, some of which ORS provided, we would only have to place them in an eight-hour a week job,” she explains.

“This outcome was considered a success.”

This is an email Mrs Purvis received after referring her client to an ORS Rehabilitation Counsellor:

“Hi Brooke, I met with Linda today for a vocational counselling appt.  Just wanted to check if there was anything in particular you wanted out of the assessment, or anything I should know. If you wanted to email me back that would be great. Thanks Kirsty”

She says at ORS most employees were not worried about finding meaningful employment for their clients, the emphasis was on retaining the agency’s five-star rating.

But her concerns grew when her “files grew fat” before an audit took place.

Her initial complaints to the relevant department were ignored.

So when ABC reporter Linton Besser contacted her and asked to see the evidence, she admits to being a little sceptical.

But the courageous local woman decided to trust the experienced reporter and reveal her experience.

“I’ve been unemployed, I’ve been an employment consultant and I’ve been an employer, so I have seen all sides,” she says.

“We were over-servicing people and getting people to sign paperwork that would bring in fees for us but do nothing for them.”

Four Corners reporter Mr Besser says the problem is widespread and during the four years he has investigated the issue thousands of people have contacted him, including clients of Job Services Australia (JSA) providers and whistleblowers.

“There is a variety of ways the contracts can be optimised and little progress has been made into closing the many loopholes that exist,” he says.

He describes the situation as a “wicked problem”.

“What do you replace Job Services Australia with?”

“We will just have to wait and see, we have held the mirror up, now the government has to respond.”

It has been reported the ORS Group categorically refutes Mrs Purvis’ claims.

To see the full ABC program click on the this link  Four Corners