Conflicts, corrections and confusion: pressure mounts on the NACC Commissioner |
The Inspector of the NACC has received 90 complaints since 1 July. Most of these complaints concern the NACC Commissioner’s conflict of interests with Defence.
The Inspector of the National Anti-Corruption Commission admonished NACC boss Paul Brereton for not informing the NACC senior executive team of his advisory work with a defence watchdog.
NACC Inspector Gail Furness SC told this week’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on the NACC that she was not clear who knew about Brereton’s ongoing work for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).
Commissioner Brereton has been under fire over his consulting work with the IGADF after it was revealed that:
In a recent Senate estimates hearing, the NACC CEO Phillip Reid had to apologise to MPs for giving misleading evidence about Brereton’s consulting for the IGADF.
A spokesperson for the NACC told the ABC that Brereton had disclosed the advisory work to former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
However, in this week’s parliamentary hearing Furness said: “I don’t know who he told – from the CEO’s evidence he didn’t know… I don’t know if he told anyone else, because it hasn’t come out,” she said.
“He may have told the deputies, he may not have, don’t know if he told the current A-G. I don’t know who he told.”
Brereton formally disclosed his “