Anna Bligh moves to stop sacked payroll bureaucrats working with Queensland Health
STATE Government to seek legal advice about stopping two former bureaucrats sacked over payroll fiasco from doing any work with Queensland Health.
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PREMIER Anna Bligh has announced the State Government would be seeking legal advice about any action it can take to stop two bureaucrats sacked over the payroll debacle from doing work for Queensland Health.
The Courier-Mail revealed today that former senior bureaucrats Adrian Shea and Michael Kalimnios worked as consultants on Queensland Health projects in the 12 months since they were made the scapegoats for the payroll problems that have affected thousands of workers.
No one else was sacked over the incident, which will leave one of the greatest stains on this Labor administration and cost taxpayers $219 million to fix.
Mr Shea told The Courier-Mail he had "done a few little jobs" for the department in December and February when he was employed by consultants Thinc Health.
In May, Health Minister Geoff Wilson was forced to secure an agreement in writing that Mr Kalimnios would no longer work as a consultant after he too was rehired.
The two men were sacked in June last year, the night before a damning Auditor-General's report into the bungled rollout of the system went public.
``It's not entirely clear that there is any legal capacity for a private organisation to in any way take directions from the Director-General,'' Ms Bligh said.
``The Director-General is now seeking legal advice about what, if any, options are available to ensure these people are not doing work, even through second hand or through another organisation, for Queensland Health.''
Ms Bligh said the Government had made it clear that they did not want Mr Shea and Mr Kalimnios working for the agencies that contract to Queensland Health.
``These people have not been contracted directly to do any consultancy work or any contracting work,'' she said.
``The Director-General of Queensland Health has made it absolutely clear that these people are not to be employed by Queensland Health and they have not been.''
