Alcohol, flights and phone bills: Shane Drumgold investigation over expenses

Ex-ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold has been referred to the territory’s integrity watchdog over allegations by his office manager that he mishandled expenses and broke DPP policy.

Former ACT director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold’s office manager went to the territory’s integrity watchdog with allegations her then boss mishandled expenses and broke department policy by claiming for alcohol and $5000 in global phone roaming charges.

The allegations are made by his former office manager Mercy ­Wilkie, who claims in a seven-page letter to the ACT Integrity Commission that her long-running concerns over Mr Drumgold’s conduct were heightened during the inquiry into his handling of the prosecution of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann.

Ms Wilkie sent the claims in March this year, around the time her partner, builder Matthew Thompson, was becoming embroiled in a legal case with her boss over building work on Mr Drumgold’s holiday homes.

“Sometimes these declarations are supported by bank statements, at other times they are not. I have repeatedly asked Mr Drumgold to simply keep receipts so that I can review the purchase before re­imbursement is made,” she wrote to the commission.

“Notwithstanding many conversations about this practice of not providing receipts, completing statutory declarations still remains the practice for Mr Drumgold. I hold real concerns that many items that I have been asked to reimburse Mr Drumgold for purchasing involve alcohol or other expenses that would not ordinarily be appropriate to re­imburse government officials for.”

Former ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold. Picture: AAP

The Australian is not suggesting Mr Drumgold has committed any wrongdoing or that he was involved in Ms Wilkie’s suspension from the DPP, only that Ms Wilkie made allegations to the Integrity Commission and that she believed they should be investigated.

A spokesman for the Integrity Commissioner confirmed they had recieved the complaint and it was under assessment.

Mr Drumgold, his lawyer Mark Tedeschi and the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions were contacted for comment.

Amid 21 separate complaints to the commission, Ms Wilkie claims that Mr Drumgold would regularly not provide receipts for things for which he wanted the DPP office to reimburse him.

Ms Wilkie alleges Mr Drumgold tried to hide a reimbursement claim for alcohol because of a failure to provide receipts and a photograph of a glass of gin posted on a social media account while he was at a conference.

“I believe Mr Drumgold completed the statutory declaration, rather than providing receipts to hide the purchase of alcohol and/or other items, which should not properly be reimbursed to him,” she wrote.

She also accused Mr Drumgold of charging a Telstra global roaming bill of $5000 for his iPad, despite her advising him it was against policy. The DPP reimbursed him despite it being against standard practice.

“The standard practice at the DPP is to enable international roaming at a cost of about $350 a month. When Mr Drumgold returned from England, the DPP received an invoice for around $5000 from Telstra, and this related to his iPad,” Ms Wilkie writes.

“I drew this invoice to Mr Drumgold’s attention, reminded him of our discussion about international roaming, and advised he would need to pay the invoice. Mr Drumgold said the iPad was work-related and the DPP would pay for it.”

She also claims that the then ACT chief prosecutor directed an employee to buy a plane ticket for his wife to Perth, on a government account.

“Mr Drumgold advised that he would put (his wife’s) ticket on his frequent flyer points. A few days later, Mr Drumgold advised Corporate that Qantas had put the frequent flyer ticket intended for (his wife) in his name, and would not change it,” she writes.

“He then directed (an employee) from corporate to book (his wife’s) ticket under the government account. When (the employee) tried to do this, she was questioned by Qantas about it, but ultimately (the DPP) purchased the ticket.”

The then-office manager for the DPP – who had worked there for 15 years when she put in her complaint – said she had a good relationship with her bosses and that she even received praise from Mr Drumgold when she extended her contract.

“In or around 2022, I received a salary increase. I also received a text message from the Director of Public Prosecutions which said ‘I don’t want to get mushy, but I’m glad you’re hanging around’,” Ms Wilkie wrote to the commission.

The praise from her superior did not stop Ms Wilkie putting 21 causes for concern about Mr Drumgold to the integrity watchdog.

“For some time now, I have been troubled by the conduct of Mr Shane Drumgold and some of the irregularities at the DPP,” she wrote.

“My concerns have escalated over the course of the last six months, and I am now at a point where I think it is important I raise the concerns I have so that the ­issues can be investigated more thoroughly and by an independent person.

“Many of the concerns I have had with Mr Drumgold’s conduct became more acute since the ­announcement of the independent review into Mr Drumgold’s conduct in the well publicised Brittany Higgins trial.”

Ms Wilkie was stood down from her position just over a week after making the complaint, on the grounds that she had accessed Mr Drumgold’s emails.

It is understood Ms Wilkie had been required to access the email as part of her duties.

Among her other claims are that Mr Drumgold allowed his daughter – who also worked at the ACT DPP – to use his official car park spot and that he met his lawyer Mark Tedeschi SC under the “ruse of the Higgins inquiry” when in fact he wanted to discuss suing this masthead over its report into his texts to Ms Wilkie’s builder partner.

In her letter, Ms Wilkie also claimed that her boss was meeting her partner, Mr Thompson, to ­discuss their plans for Mr Drumgold’s holiday homes during work hours.

Ms Wilkie says she thought these meetings in work hours were inappropriate but “felt conflicted about this because Matt needed the business, but Mr Drumgold should not have been paid by the Territory for attending a private meeting during work hours.”

The dispute between Mr Thompson and Mr Drumgold was first revealed in The Australian last February after it emerged that text messages had been sent from Mr Drumgold’s phone number to the builder asking for updates on renovations at the very time he was in the ACT Supreme Court leading the prosecution of Mr Lehrmann last year.