Public kept in dark over ‘corrupt conduct’ inquiry
About $153,000 was spent investigating allegations of “corrupt conduct, sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour” in a Queensland government department, but the outcome has not been disclosed to “preserve confidentiality”.
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The state’s environment and science department spent about $153,000 on a contract for a workplace investigation regarding allegations of “corrupt conduct, sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour”.
But taxpayers are being kept in the dark about the outcome of the investigation, as well as two others, as the department refuses to provide further details – insisting it needs to “preserve confidentiality”.
The Department of Environment and Science’s contract disclosure report has revealed it spent about $189,000 on the three separate contracts for workplace investigations in the 2019-20 financial year.
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One of the contracts listed on the disclosure log was for a workplace investigation into allegations of “inappropriate conduct”, which cost about $12,000.
The disclosure log says another contract, which cost taxpayers $23,986 and was entered into last year, was for a workplace investigation into “sexual harassment allegations”.
The Department of Environment and Science would not say what the outcome of the investigations were, or provide any further details on them – saying they were unable to.
But a department spokeswoman said that the decision to investigate, including the use of external investigators, was “based on the nature of the issues involved, which may require particular expertise”.
“The Department of Environment and Science takes all allegations of inappropriate conduct seriously,” she said in a statement.
“To preserve confidentiality, the department is unable to provide any further details about the investigations.”
Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch also would not say what specific allegations were investigated and what the outcome of the investigations were.
“It would not be appropriate for me to comment on departmental investigations,” Ms Enoch said in a one line statement.
The LNP’s environment and science spokesman David Crisafulli said: “There’s no reason why Labor can’t be upfront and honest with Queenslanders while redacting certain information like names to uphold confidentiality.”