Government ministers, departments and regulators have offered a tepid response to revelations the chairman of a federally funded Indigenous aged-care charity in South Australia was sacked or resigned from multiple organisations under a cloud of alleged credit card misuse and overspending.

An investigation by The Australian Financial Review on Monday detailed the history of Jim Golden-Brown, the chairman of Aboriginal Elders & Community Care Services Inc (ACS), and an ongoing but protracted probe by the Department of Social Services into his conduct at the collapsed National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation, which owes the department almost $2 million.