SSC pledges “redress” for whistleblowers

The State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has published the report of the investigation into former Ministry of Transport (MoT) worker Joanne Harrison. The investigation, carried out by former Deputy State Services Commissioner Sandi Beatie QSO, was announced after mounting pressure from the public regarding Harrison’s treatment of two former MoT staffers. The employees claimed they were forced out from the government department after raising concerns about Harrison’s behaviour to senior management. Harrison was failed for three years in February for defrauding the MoT of over $720,000. Hughes took over the investigation, originally managed by the Secretary for Transport, after the affected staff raised their concerns with him. “It is vital that public servants can raise concerns about suspected wrong-doing safely and without fear of punishment or reprisal,” Mr Hughes said. Hughes has apologised both publicly and to the affected staff members, and “agreed with them a package of redress and settlement for the disadvantage they suffered.” Beatie found that three former staff members in the Ministry’s finance team raised concerns about Harrison’s behavariour, and one employee formally raised concerns with a senior member in the MoT legal department. The report stated that these staff were not made redundant due to these concerns, but to the Ministry moving to an automated accounts payable process, which was properly planned and authorised and that Harrison had no control over. However, Beatie found the employees suffered disadvantage and unnecessary hurt and humiliation during the redundancy process, which Harrison had provided advice for. The staff members were made redundant just before Christmas, over seven months before the new automated payroll system was due to come into effect. The former employees also had to train a temporary staff member to perform their jobs, and one had a new offer employment made and withdrawn. “While decisions were properly made by the appropriate finance group managers and endorsed by the chief executive, the process followed and particularly the timing of the redundancies was based on advice from Joanne Harrison,” said Hughes. “While there is no definitive evidence that Joanne Harrison engineered the process to exit these staff, the convergence of events that took place and her involvement in providing advice gives me cause for concern.” A fourth staff member, who had raised concerns about Harrison’s activities with the Ministry’s chief executive, was also disadvantaged after Harrison took direct action to prevent them from receiving pay rises recommended to them on two separate occasions, the report said. The Commissioner referred that case to the Secretary of Transport to “remedy the situation and make up for the loss of income they suffered.” Hughes has also recommended the 17-year-old Protected Disclosures Act be updated by the government, and published new standards for public servants wanting to raise concerns about fellow staff members.