NAAJA staff call for government intervention and a management shake-up

A letter from a NAAJA whistleblower has detailed a litany of shortcomings with the legal aid provider. Read why they’re desperate.

Trouble continues to fester at North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency weeks after police cleared the organisation’s chief financial officer of criminal wrongdoing.

The NT News has received a letter from employees at the organisation which calls for urgent NT and commonwealth government intervention into NAAJA and demands the removal of its executive management team.

The Territory’s largest legal aid provider was beset by crisis in 2023 including an ongoing unfair dismissal claim against it lodged by former chief executive Priscilla Atkins, the resignation of acting chief executive Olga Havnen and an NT Police probe into allegations of criminal conduct by chief financial officer Madhur Evans, which were subsequently dismissed.

An email forwarded to the NT News on Saturday signed by “concerned NAAJA employees”, details a litany of grievances and claims the executive is acting out of self-interest and is “destroying NAAJA”.

Former NAAJA chief executive Priscilla Atkins. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

“Unfortunately both governments are ignoring what is going on at NAAJA and we want your help to get our concerns out to the public,” the letter said.

“NAAJA is a legal service and was regarded as one of the leading legal services in Australia. NAAJA now has a bad reputation with our employees, clients and the public under this leadership.”

The letter reels off a string of allegations against the executive including it breached the NAAJA constitution, funding agreements and Fair Work legislation and that nepotism was rife.

“To date no government has stepped in and held them accountable so they willingly continue to violate the law and ridicule the commonwealth and Northern Territory government that they will get away with it.

“The government needs to take the funding off NAAJA and give it to an organisation who can provide essential legal services to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.”

The letter said more than 70 per cent of NAAJA’s workforce had left since November 2022, including departures in December and January.

NAAJA had for the first time stopped taking criminal cases in Alice Springs and the taxpayer-funded organisation was spending more than $150,000 per month on locums in Alice Springs.

It claimed the organisation is funding the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission to the tune of $300,000 to deliver legal services to Aboriginal people.

“The NAAJA Board are refusing to have a government official attend NAAJA Board meetings, this is clear evidence they do not want the government to see how dishonest and dysfunctional they are,” the letter said.

“We urgently request both governments intervene now and remove the Executive Management Team for dishonesty, failure to manage conflict of interest, breach of public trust and illegal performance of official functions.”

A list of the claims contained in the letter have been forwarded to NAAJA and a response to the broader question of how it plans to address staff morale and concerns raised has been requested.