Border boss Roman Quaedvlieg yet to be grilled on girlfriend’s job offer
FIVE months after stepping aside from his role, Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has still not been contacted by the powerful law body investigating whether he helped secure his girlfriend a job.
NSW
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FIVE months after stepping aside from his role, Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has still not been contacted by the powerful law body investigating whether he helped secure his girlfriend a job.
The Daily Telegraph understands the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, the independent anti-corruption agency charged with overseeing the inquiry into Mr Quaedvlieg, is now pursuing top-secret secondary line of inquiry.
Mr Quaedvlieg, 52, is facing allegations he helped secure a job at Sydney Airport for his girlfriend, who is more than 20 years his junior. ACLEI is said to have produced preliminary findings from its initial investigation.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection Secretary Michael Pezzullo is understood not to be involved in providing advice on the decision about Mr Quaedvlieg’s future.
Instead the report has been referred to secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, as the head of the public service.
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Dr Parkinson will then take advice to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who will then decide whether there is an issue of serious misconduct that would affect whether Mr Quaedvlieg is able to return to his former role.
ACLEI has not interviewed Mr Quaedvlieg or sent him submissions. Neither has the agency seized his phone to access text messages, phone records or any other files.
However, the agency has the power available to it to intercept phone calls and access data without physically seizing a mobile phone.
During its five-month investigation, it may have been able to access Mr Quaedvlieg’s phone records and text messages without notifying him. Mr Quaedvlieg had told his bosses that he met his girlfriend before she began work within his organisation last December but said they were not in a romantic relationship at that time. Mr Quaedvlieg, who has three children, separated from his wife of 11 years in January this year. He insisted he had kept his distance from his girlfriend’s application to work at Sydney Airport.
After she won the job, an employee who discovered their relationship lodged a complaint about her promotion. It is believed the nature of communications on their mobile phones could shed light on the issue.
A second line of inquiry, not related to Mr Quaedvlieg’s girlfriend’s promotion at work, is understood to now be the focus of a separate investigation by ACLEI.
While Mr Quaedvlieg has stood aside pending the investigation, his girlfriend is still working on a casual basis at Sydney Airport, scanning passports and assisting passengers. The Border Force Commissioner has made it clear he is keen to return to his job and get back to work.