Email trail between Nikola Stepanov and Rob Setter over staffing issue reveals tension

Newly released emails between Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov and Public Service boss Rob Setter reveal his surprise at her concern when her staffing was slashed.

Public Service Commissioner Rob Setter was “surprised” to learn Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov complained her job was “untenable” after his department reduced her staff to one.

Newly released emails reveal how Dr Stepanov last year raised her significant workload and requested mediation with Mr Setter, who she accused in a parliament hearing last month of previously calling her a “bitch on a witch hunt” in an extraordinary public display of their fractured relationship.

Mr Setter denies the allegation.

The series of emails – sparked when Dr Stepanov was asked to complete online training on the day her second-in-charge was removed without notice – were sent just days before the Public Service Commission (PSC) raided Dr Stepanov’s office and took a ­sensitive ­laptop, now at the centre of a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation.

“On Thursday I found myself in a position where, with no prior warning, I am left with 1 FTE as support,” Dr Stepanov wrote four days after the workers’ removal on March 8, 2021.

“ … The decisions that you made have placed me in an untenable position, including in terms of continuing to ensure public confidence in the independence and resourcing of an integrity commission.”

Public Service Commissioner Robert Setter.

Integrity Commissioner Dr Nikola Stepanov.

She wrote: “I now found (sic) myself in a position where, in an already under-resourced office, the legal delegate for the lobbying functions has been reassigned without warning or any opportunity to handover, including current CCC and QPS matters.” She said her ­remaining staff member had no legal training and her workload was at unprecedented highs.

Dr Stepanov suggested informal or formal mediation by a mediator, an unrelated director-general or a barrister to identify issues and propose “a way forward”.

The email chain was sparked by a PSC request for Dr Stepanov to complete six mandatory and outstanding learning modules or be ­reported for failure to do so.

Dr Stepanov responded by emailing Mr Setter and asking she be removed from the training.

Mr Setter CCed in Department of Premier and Cabinet director-general Dave Stewart and told her that she must “ensure compliance”.

In response to the request for mediation, Mr Setter suggested “we focus on getting your office functional again in the first instance”. “Then let’s meet and discuss your concerns below – which I must say come as a surprise to me,” he wrote.

Dr Stepanov replied that she was not satisfied with that outcome and “there is no reason that ­restoring the functionality of my office whilst resolving a more appropriate way forward cannot occur simultaneously”.

Mr Setter said he would release the emails three weeks ago to ­demonstrate he never “rebuffed” mediation efforts, but complained that he did not have Dr Stepanov’s permission.

Dr Stepanov proactively wrote to Mr Setter this week to give her permission for their release.

Mediation has never occurred and Dr Stepanov has said it is now inappropriate given the CCC’s ongoing investigations.