NAAJA rocked by corruption allegations after CEO Priscilla Atkins is ousted
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency has been shaken by allegations of misappropriating government funds, following the ousting of chief executive Priscilla Atkins.
Allegations of corruption have rocked Australia’s largest Aboriginal legal organisation following the ousting of its chief executive, who says she was sacked for claiming her finance chief was funnelling company funds to the head of the board.
Priscilla Atkins is suing the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency for unfair dismissal in the Federal Court, saying she was fired for claiming chief financial officer Madhur Evans was making discreet payments to NAAJA chairperson Colleen Rosas.
Ms Atkins said since her employment was terminated, she had been continually harassed, including “current workers being advised she was on cocaine”.
NAAJA has denied the allegations, justifying the decision to sack Ms Atkins through allegations she forged Ms Rosas’s digital signature to extend her contract, and improperly used company funds to buy numerous vehicles and artworks.
NAAJA is mainly funded by the federal government and received $21m in grants in 2019, and $18.3m in 2018. It conducts a large share of Indigenous legal cases across the Northern Territory — where crime has increased by double digits during the past year — and employs 200 workers across its offices in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.
In a statement of claim filed in July, obtained by The Weekend Australian, Ms Atkins says she wrote an email to Ms Rosas and board members Carol Smith and Marilyn Smith on November 7 last year alleging that Ms Rosas was accepting secret payments from Ms Evans.
The email also detailed complaints that Ms Evans bullied other employees, recorded interactions with her colleagues without their permission, logged into Ms Atkins’s work computer after hours without her permission, disclosed confidential company information and failed to use her work-issued credit card in accordance with company policy.
Ms Atkins, who headed NAAJA for 15 years and was appointed the co-chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services in 2021, said her complaints against Ms Evans and Ms Rosas went uninvestigated, and Ms Evans “was not subject to any suspension … for the misconduct alleged against her by Ms Atkins”.
Two weeks after she sent the email, Ms Atkins was suspended from her employment over claims she had forged Ms Rosas’s electronic signature on a contract extension document without her knowledge or consent.
She denies this allegation.
Ms Atkins said she was blocked out of the company’s IT systems and denied access to the NAAJA workplace, which “humiliated … and subjected her to distress and further psychological injury”.
On January 19, two months after she had been suspended, NAAJA accused Ms Atkins of historical misconduct between 2014 and 2021, and flagged it might permanently terminate her employment.
One month later, Ms Atkins initiated Federal Court proceedings, including seeking an ultimately successful injunction to prevent NAAJA from terminating her employment until the matter had been finalised.
The Federal Court in May heard NAAJA’s reasons for firing Ms Atkins included claims she improperly used company money to purchase seven vehicles for personal use, wrongfully cashed out her annual leave and charged vehicle expenses to the company.
Ms Atkins’s lawyer, Cathy Spurr, said her actions were entirely justifiable. She said harassment of Ms Atkins had continued after she was stood down, and current workers had been advised she was on cocaine.
NAAJA has denied allegations that Ms Evans and Ms Rosas engaged in deceptive conduct, and claimed Ms Atkins’s email to board members “contained commentary about operational matters within NAAJA that fell within the role and purview of Ms Atkins – and not the board – to address and manage”.
NAAJA has also denied it sprung unsubstantiated allegations of misconduct on Ms Atkins, but rather had engaged external auditor BDO to determine whether there had been any “irregular or inappropriate actions” made by Ms Atkins during her time as chief executive.
The matter is down for a nine-day hearing from October 23.
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