Kakadu group ‘paid’ for family travel and ski class

A senior executive at an organisation representing Kakadu traditional owners allegedly charged thousands in speeding fines, overseas travel and skiing lessons to the corporation’s accounts.

Kakadu National Park. Picture: Alamy

A senior executive at an organisation representing Kakadu traditional owners allegedly charged thousands of dollars in speeding fines, overseas travel and skiing lessons at a luxury resort to the corporation’s accounts.

Documents seen by The Australian suggest the corporation paid more than $16,000 worth of mobile-roaming charges related to a trip the executive took to Paris and that it contributed to other trips involving members of the executive’s extended family.

The evidence is understood to form part of a lengthy investigation into Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which until recently handled more than $7m in annual royalties from the Ranger uranium mine for the traditional owners.

Dozens of pages of invoices and internal memos, obtained by The Australian, show the organisation also paid almost $10,000 for a trip to Canada involving the executive and two relatives in late 2014. Those accounts recorded cash withdrawals, hotel stays and charges from a ski school in Whistler, an exclusive winter resort north of Vancouver.

The executive and several family members travelled interstate around Easter 2015, with accounts recording charges for airfares, accommodation and visits to a theme park despite pay slips indicating the executive was on annual leave.

The Australian has chosen not to name the executive for legal reasons, and because the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations investigation is ongoing.

Some of the charges — which include hundreds of dollars paid for speeding and parking fines, over $700 for a gun safe and a bill for a consultant lawyer’s car crash — may be legitimately explained under salary sacrifice arrangements. But other documents obtained as part of The Australian’s investigation suggest the executive’s fringe benefits account was often significantly overdrawn and that the way the salary sacrifice was being managed was likely inconsistent with taxation rules.

There is also evidence some charges recorded as salary sacrifices were later billed to the corporation instead.

The allegations, and investigation by the Indigenous corporations’ regulator, come at a crucial time for Gundjeihmi, which is involved in steering a $446m redevelopment of Jabiru and Kakadu National Park.

A related organisation, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation Jabiru Town, is expected to take control of the Kakadu township, southeast of Darwin, in June.

Gundjeihmi chief executive Justin O’Brien declined to respond to detailed questions but emphatically denied there had been any wrongdoing at the corporation. “ORIC has advised GAC to continue operations as usual,” he said.

The Australian does not suggest that the documents demonstrate wrongdoing, only that they relate to ORIC’s nearly 18-month-long inquiry.

The Australian reported on Monday that ORIC was investigating claims senior Gundjeihmi figures conspired to award themselves significant pay rises and abused entitlements

While the full details of ORIC’s investigation remain unclear, The Australian has confirmed that the regulator was examining the executive’s alleged abuse of travel and annual leave entitlements and salary sacrifice arrangements as recently as this month.

In statements issued last week, both the federal and Northern Territory governments dismissed questions about whether the handover of Jabiru should be delayed on account of ORIC’s ongoing investigation.