ICAC boss Michael Riches writes to Natasha Fyles after Cormac MacCarthy hired

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches has written to the Chief Minister after it emerged a former political party member was hired by his office. Read what the letter said.

Michael Riches wrote to Natasha Fyles about strengthening the Act after criticism that an ex-CLP member was hired

The Territory’s corruption watchdog has written to the Chief Minister requesting that his own office be barred from employing former members of political parties following public criticism of a decision to do so.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches wrote to Natasha Fyles on Saturday after it emerged that his office had hired former Country Liberal Party member Cormac MacCarthy as an operations officer last month.

After previously defending the move, Mr Riches states in the letter that “greater attention ought to be have been paid to the applicant’s prior political affiliations”.

“Over the last few days there has been public criticism of the appointment to my office of an individual who previously held a senior position within a political party,” he wrote.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches has requested changes to the section of the Act relating to hiring staff. Picture: Office of the ICAC/Supplied

“While the individual was very well qualified for the position, and the position is relatively junior in terms of the structure of my office, I understand and accept the criticism that has been made.

“None of what I have said should be seen as a criticism of the individual involved, who I am advised is performing to a high standard.

“As I explained publicly, the individual is the subject of numerous controls to manage any actual or perceived conflicts of interests.

“Nevertheless, the event creates an opportunity to suggest some further potential amendments to the ICAC Act.”

There is no suggestion Mr MacCarthy has done anything wrong.

As a result of the blowback, Mr Riches asked Ms Fyles to consider strengthening the section of the Act regarding matters to be taken into account in hiring staff.

“I propose the insertion of a statutory bar to the appointment of any person who has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly, or a member of a political party, in the past five years, unless both the Commissioner and the Independent Inspector are satisfied that the individual’s political affiliations are sufficiently minor or remote as to not affect the individual’s suitability for appointment,” he wrote.

Cormac MacCarthy was hired as an operations officer at the ICAC.

“I further suggest that this determination can only be made by the Commissioner and the Inspector, and cannot be delegated to any other person.”

Mr Riches makes reference in the letter to a column published in Saturday’s NT News by former editor and Sky News bureau chief Matt Cunningham which called for the ICAC to be disbanded because “this jurisdiction is too small to effectively operate its own anti-corruption watchdog”.

Mr Riches said while he disagreed with Cunningham’s position, “it must be accepted that there is an element of truth to the commentator’s underlying argument”.

“There is no substitute for locally based decision makers, particularly in respect of the many and varied functions performed by my office,” he wrote.

“(However) the population of the Northern Territory is small and, as a consequence, the pool of suitably skilled and qualified applicants is miniscule.

“Where local applicants are selected, it is almost inevitable that conflicts of interest will arise that necessitate that staff member being excluded from certain matters or activities.”

To address the issue, Mr Riches recommended the ICAC Act be amended to “authorise the payment of an attraction and retention allowance of an amount that I consider appropriate and reasonable”, which would “be met within existing budgetary constraints”.

“We have conducted numerous recruitment processes where no suitable applicant was identified, the most recent example was yesterday,” he wrote.

“In some cases we have advertised on multiple occasions for the same role, the recruitment processes themselves are costly and resource intensive.

“While there are likely many reasons for the difficulties we have, and are, experiencing in respect of the recruitment of suitable employees, it would be naïve to suggest that the capacity to offer an attractive remuneration package is not a significant barrier.”

Mr Riches revealed he will travel to New Zealand in September to try to recruit new staff members from there but said to be successful his office “must be in a position to offer attractive remuneration to encourage persons to relocate to the Northern Territory and to remain”.

Originally published as ICAC boss Michael Riches writes to Natasha Fyles after Cormac MacCarthy hired