NT has no permanent Corrections Commissioner

THE Territory does not have a permanent Corrections Commissioner

THE Territory does not have a permanent Corrections Commissioner.

The department told the NT News on Wednesday that Mark Payne had been appointed to the post fulltime.

But it was forced to backtrack yesterday — the latest in a growing list of public statements released by Corrections and later found to be incorrect.

On Tuesday Adam Giles accused the department of running a “culture of cover up”.

Mr Payne has been acting in the job for eight months and was supposed to lead the recruitment process for a replacement for disgraced former commissioner Ken Middlebrook.

But Mr Payne soon quietly dropped the “acting” from his title in emails and no attempt has been made to recruit a permanent commissioner.

The NT News asked the Department of Correctional Services on Wednesday if Mr Payne had taken over the role of commissioner permanently or if he was still acting.

The spokesman responded with: “Permanent, not acting”.

The next morning, after questions to the Chief Minister’s office about when Mr Payne had been quietly made permanent, he was back to an “acting” commissioner.

A department spokesman said it was not a deliberate attempt to mislead the NT News but rather a case of “crossed wires”. When Mr Payne took over in November, Chief Minister Adam Giles said in a statement that: “Commissioner Payne will undertake a recruitment process for a permanent Commissioner, as well as a comprehensive review of the Department of Correctional Services”.

“It is anticipated both tasks will be complete in mid-2016,” he said.

But yesterday Mr Giles said Mr Payne was appointed to implement recommendations of the Vita Review and would “stay there until the job is done”. The maximum term for an acting appointment is 12 months.