Henry Keogh payout: Auditor-General asked to probe $2.57m compensation
THE state’s financial watchdog, Auditor-General Andrew Richardson, has been asked to launch an investigation into the $2.57 million ex-gratia payout to Henry Keogh.
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A SECOND top-level inquiry could be held into the controversial $2.57 million payout to Henry Keogh — this time by the state’s Auditor-General.
Just a day after a parliamentary inquiry was established, the Opposition has formally written to Auditor-General Andrew Richardson requesting he also conduct an investigation.
Opposition spokesman for government accountability Tom Koutsantonis said he had taken the step of asking Mr Richardson to examine the payout because any inquiry he may undertake “would be a truly independent investigation”.
“And Attorney-General Vickie Chapman has already indicated she will not release the legal opinion she used to justify the payment to the parliamentary inquiry,’’ he said.
“The Auditor-General has coercive powers he can use under his Act to compel the government to hand that advice to him to examine.’’
On Monday, the Opposition successfully moved to establish an inquiry by the powerful Budget and Finance Committee following conflicting statements on the content of the legal opinion used to prompt it.
It has also emerged that no formulated claim was presented by Mr Keogh’s lawyers after his initial request for compensation was declined last year by the former state government.
Ms Chapman on Tuesday said any action Mr Richardson took was a matter for him, but the government had “been completely open and accountable about our reasons for providing the ex-gratia payment to Mr Keogh”.
“Having regard to legal advice, we took action to finally resolve this long-running matter,’’ she reiterated.
In his letter, Mr Koutsantonis states that former Attorney-General John Rau had advised him “it would be highly irregular to settle a claim of this magnitude without the claimants being obliged to set out in some detail the legal basis for their claim”.
“The Opposition has grave concerns regarding the process the Attorney-General followed to formulate and make this ex gratia payment,” he said.
“It is particularly concerning that a large sum of public money may have been paid to Mr Keogh in circumstances where he had no realistic claim against the state.
“Mr Keogh has now become the only person in South Australia’s history to receive damages despite not receiving an acquittal from the Court, indeed, the Court directed Mr Keogh face a new trial for the murder of his fiancee Ms Anna Jane Cheney.
“How it was appropriate from the state’s perspective, that damages be provided to an individual without proof of a claim, and to date, there is no evidence that SAICORP were consulted on this transaction or if they were, what was their advice?’’
Mr Keogh was released from prison in December 2014 after serving two decades behind bars following his conviction for drowning Ms Cheney in her bath in 1994. His conviction was quashed in 2014 because of flawed forensic evidence and a retrial ordered, but Director of Public Prosecutions Adam Kimber QC subsequently dropped the murder charge because key witness pathologist Dr Colin Manock was too ill to testify.
Mr Keogh, who maintains his innocence, has welcomed the parliamentary inquiry.