‘They wanted everybody sacked’: NAAJA board ‘went berserk’ over loan scheme, court hears

Natalie Ellis told the court NAAJA’s board ‘wanted everybody sacked’ after they ‘uncovered’ a leasing scheme being used to supply tax free car loans for staff.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins outside the Federal Court in Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The board of the Territory’s largest legal aid organisation “went berserk” and “wanted everybody sacked” when it learned of a plum leasing arrangement staff had used to purchase cars, a court has heard.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins is suing NAAJA in the Federal Court after its board tried to sack her following a bitter falling out last year.

On Monday, board director Natalie Ellis told the court the board had “uncovered” an arrangement Ms Atkins and other staff had used to purchase personal vehicles, referred to as a “novated lease scheme” but which Ms Ellis said was no such thing.

“Novated lease means there’s a third person, a third party that actually becomes the financer and they arrange the contract and the finances,” she said.

“That has (instead) come out of money that’s meant for our clients and our communities.”

Ms Ellis said when the board members learned of the arrangement in 2015, they “declared it not a scheme and (that the staff) needed to pay the money back immediately”.

“The board went berserk, they wanted everybody sacked,” she said.

“I remember our chair walking around the building, swearing, saying ‘They all need to be sacked now … this is not right’.”

Ms Ellis told the court she “felt sick” when years later she learned Ms Atkins had used the scheme to purchase a total of $346,000 worth of vehicles.

“If she had declared that she had got all these payments before that last one, she would have been sacked, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” she said.

“If she would have said ‘Oh shit, I’m sorry, blah blah blah, we did this and we did that’, we probably would have forgiven her, but she did not disclose any of this, except they got caught out on the last one and that was just by chance.”

Ms Atkins’ barrister Malcolm Harding SC pointed out an audit had only found the scheme “wasn’t set up correctly by management” and was unable to establish whether it was approved by the board.

Mr Harding accused Ms Ellis of harbouring a negative opinion of Ms Atkins, partly because of a complaint she made about NAAJA’s chief financial officer in November last year.

“You’re as angry as you are because you have a very adverse view of Ms Atkins and you had that view as early as the seventh of November,” he said.

But Ms Ellis responded that she had an adverse view of “Aboriginal funds being mismanaged or misappropriated” and “that complaint had nothing to do with terminating her”.

The trial continues.

‘Red flags everywhere’: NAAJA CEO complaint ‘vexatious’, court hears

There were “red flags everywhere” throughout a complaint of alleged fraud North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins made against the agency’s chief financial officer, a court has heard.

Ms Atkins is suing NAAJA in the Federal Court in a bid to stop the government-funded legal aid organisation sacking her following a bitter falling out last year.

On Monday, NAAJA board director Natalie Ellis told the court a complaint presented to the board about CFO Madhur Evans by Ms Atkins alleging she had tried to claim credit card reimbursements she was not entitled to was largely “vexatious”.

“She didn’t follow our policies and procedures with regard to some of those complaints,” she said.

“The complaint and how we received it and in that format was not up to standard, to be honest, what you expect of a CEO to do.”

Under cross examination by Ms Atkins’ barrister Malcolm Harding SC, Ms Ellis said “If you got that complaint letter you would be concerned too”.

“There were red flags everywhere in that complaint, and most of it I took, personally, as someone that manages staff in my workplace, that she lacked the insight and self awareness of what her role was in those complaints, as CEO,” she said.

“Look at the complaint and you tell me any normal person would not say ‘Hey, what’s going on here? There’s some red flags happening’.”

Ms Ellis said Ms Atkins’ allegation amounted to “a generic statement” that lacked the necessary detail.

“If it was a proper complaint and a proper grievance, the CEO would have told us when, how, why,” she said.

“There was so much in there, just so much, my view, when I seen all that, was ‘This is about quantity, not quality’.”

Barrister for North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Priscilla Atkins Malcolm Harding SC. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Ms Ellis said the complaint was presented to a two-day board meeting in Alice Springs that already had a full agenda and “this was just another distraction”.

“These are not complaints, putting it in a dot point like that, there are incident reports, there (is) a grievance policy (to follow), and at the end of the day Cilla is the CEO,” she said.

“But making generic statements like this, just statements without giving the details, what are you meant to do with it?”

Ms Ellis said another allegation that Ms Evans had dishonestly inflated an IT contract by $100,000 was simply an example of “a normal accounting practice”.

“That money, the $100,000, is actually still sitting in that hanging account, it hasn’t gone anywhere,” she said

“If we don’t need to use it, we will reverse it, it’s a normal accounting practice.”

The trial continues.