CCC boss Alan MacSporran says Jackie Trad case was complex

The chairman of corruption watchdog has defended how long it took to probe allegations against Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, saying it was a complex investigation with ‘no avenues missed or misinterpreted’.

CRIME and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran has defended the time it took to probe allegations against Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, insisting the watchdog did not want to appear to simply be “rolling the arm over”.

Mr MacSporran appeared before the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee this morning where he faced several questions about the assessment of Ms Trad, as well as the ongoing probe into Annastacia Palaszczuk’s former chief of staff David Barbagallo.

Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Alan MacSporran. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

He told the committee he was “very comfortable” with the seven-week assessment of Ms Trad.

“There are complexities that needed to be looked at,” he said.

“I think it was quite quick really given the scale of the job and the high profile nature of it.

“The last thing we want to do is give the impression that we just roll the arm over and say there is nothing in this and move on.

“We needed to be thorough. We needed to make sure that there were no avenues that we missed or misinterpreted.

“You can’t put a finite time limit on the assessment process.”

Mr MacSporran said the assessment of corrupt conduct allegations levelled at Mr Barbagallo over the $267,500 government co-investment awarded to a company he part-owns had progressed to a “feasibility study” after the CCC decided it had more questions on the issue after receiving Ernst and Young’s audit into the funding.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad speaks during question time at Queensland parliament this week. Picture: Jono Searle/AAP

“We are in what we now call as a hybrid area which is a preliminary investigative stage or a feasibility study if you like,” he told the hearing.

“That (audit) report itself raised some issues which we are currently conducting a feasibility preliminary investigation of and then we will decide after that process is complete whether it requires investigation or not.“

Outside the hearing Mr MacSporran would not say how long he expected it would be before the CCC decided whether or not it would launch a full investigation into Mr Barbagallo.

But he said the CCC was working “as quickly as possible”.

“All I can say is the audit report did not answer the queries that we have about certain process and such like.

“We just need to make further inquiries.”