Federal Auditor-General Ian McPhee has named 11 ministers and parliamentary secretaries who defied a policy designed to eliminate pork-barrelling. His statement, tabled in Parliament yesterday, also shows the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, directly approved 14 grants, worth more than $730,000, when she should have asked the finance minister to oversee the decisions.

Former finance minister Lindsay Tanner established the grant-reporting rules in 2008 after accusations the Coalition rorted the now defunct Regional Partnerships Program. Under Labor's policy, lower-house ministers can neither approve grants for projects in their own electorate, nor approve funds against their department's advice. Instead, these decisions are referred to the finance minister.

Mr McPhee's office audited about 800 grant-related briefs, prepared over 18 months in 2009 and 2010. It found ministers approved 33 projects in their electorates without telling the finance minister, and 11 grants against the bureaucracy's advice.

However, Mr McPhee blamed in part the poor quality of public servants' briefs. ''The most significant issue raised by the audit report … was the fairly widespread shortcomings identified in relation to the quality of agency briefings to ministerial decision-makers.''

Among Mr Albanese's decisions was his approval of $18 million for a bridge over the Einasleigh River in North Queensland. His department advised against the grant, but cabinet said the area was disaster-prone and the bridge would reduce the risk of a flood isolating the community.

Former human services minister Tanya Plibersek approved a $748,000 grant to the Women's Service Network to promote gender equality.

Her department had ranked the project as suitable, but warned against it because ''its issues of focus already receive significant government attention and resources''.

Explaining his actions in Parliament yesterday, Mr Albanese said the three roads projects he approved for his own electorate ''were not discretionary grants'' and were therefore appropriate. Parliament's public accounts committee decided to publish Mr McPhee's statement yesterday ''in the interests of transparency and accountability''.

Its chairman, independent MP Rob Oakeshott, said the document highlighted ''the importance of correct reporting processes and of the need for ministers to have strong support from their departments in fulfilling their many obligations''.

Other frontbenchers, current and former, who breached the grants policy were Bill Shorten, Mark Arbib, Nick Sherry, Kate Ellis, Laurie Ferguson, Peter Garrett, Tony Burke and Robert McClelland.