Queensland watchdog to release wiped laptop report
Queensland’s corruption watchdog has completed its investigation of the extraordinary seizure and wiping of a laptop from the office of the then state integrity commissioner Nikola Stepanov.
Queensland’s corruption watchdog has completed its investigation of the extraordinary seizure and wiping of a laptop from the office of the state integrity commissioner Nikola Stepanov.
Crime and Corruption Commission acting chair Bruce Barbour told a parliamentary oversight committee that a draft report was being finalised into Dr Stepanov’s allegations of high level interference into her office.
Dr Stepanov, who advises state MPs and senior bureaucrats on conflicts of interest and regulates lobbying, this year tendered her resignation over the alleged interference midway through her second three-year term. She will leave on July 1.
It was revealed that the laptop was removed from her office and wiped while she was investigating allegations of unlawful lobbying, on the orders of Public Service Commission boss Rob Setter.
He has not publicly stated why the laptop was removed.
Mr Barbour told the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee, which oversees the CCC, that the draft report would soon go to a “procedural fairness stage” when it is sent to those named in the report.
Mr Barbour also revealed that there was a second CCC probe relating to “certain allegations involving alleged bullying”.
“That matter is currently a public interest review being undertaken by the Public Service Commission,” he said.
Mr Barbour confirmed Dr Stepanov was not the subject of those bullying allegations.
It was revealed earlier this year that the laptop was seized in March last year by the PSC after Dr Stepanov had for months sought financial approval from the PSC for an independent forensic examination of the device.
The requests for an examination of the laptop were allegedly rejected by the PSC, which has budgetary oversight of the office of the Integrity Commissioner.
On another matter, Mr Barbour confirmed for the first time that the CCC had completed a separate investigation and delivered a report to the PCCC into the 2019 appointment of under-treasurer Frankie Carroll by then treasurer Jackie Trad.
Taxpayers are now funding an extraordinary legal bid by Ms Trad to suppress a CCC report.
Mr Barbour said the CCC was currently constrained from releasing the report, which it had already handed to the PCCC.
Mr Barbour was asked by deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie if the PCCC could release the report. “There are also judicial orders in place and it would be up to the committee to determine its own course in relation to the effectiveness of those judicial orders on its operations,’’ he said.
The discretionary decision to pay for Ms Trad’s legal action, under the existing guidelines was approved by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, a close Left factional ally of Ms Trad.
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