A corruption probe into the bureaucracy that runs federal parliament has widened, with multiple public servants ordered to step aside as investigators examine a six-figure exit payment to a senior executive.
Seven senior and middle-ranking bureaucrats have been caught up in a separate investigation into missing records and whether the $315,000 payment was properly calculated.
The Department of Parliamentary Services was raided by the National Anti-Corruption Commission in October last year, and six days later, its secretary Rob Stefanic went on paid leave.
On December 17, Stefanic was sacked by his bosses, Senate President Sue Lines and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick.
“The presiding officers acted swiftly. We lost trust and confidence, and he was terminated,” Lines told a parliamentary committee on March 27, the day before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the federal election.
Stefanic had a relationship with his deputy secretary Cate Saunders, who was seconded to Services Australia for six months in April 2023. She was given a $315,000 “incentive-to-retire payment” later that year to leave the Australian Public Service.
The government appointed former NACC deputy commissioner Jaala Hinchcliffe as acting secretary of the department last year, formally making her secretary in March.
Hinchcliffe, who is also a one-time integrity commissioner for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, ordered an independent “fact-finding investigation” into the incentive-to-retire payment by senior barrister Fiona Roughley, SC.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the review examined the role of the department in the process, whether it was calculated appropriately and whether any conduct by departmental officials may require further investigation.
Roughley made seven recommendations, which have led to DPS changing its record-keeping and management of conflicts of interest. The way Saunders’ exit payment was calculated is under further scrutiny.
Stefanic told Senate estimates in May last year that he had declared a conflict of interest to the Public Service Commission in August 2022 over a “close friendship” but denied he and Saunders were in a romantic relationship when she worked for him.
“I’ll give you a simple answer, senator, and that is no,” Stefanic told One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts at the time.
Hinchcliffe said at another Senate hearing in November that Stefanic had declared a “close personal relationship” with Saunders to Dick and Lines in June 2023, but that both declarations were only made verbally.
Of the seven DPS public servants asked to go on indefinite leave amid Roughley’s inquiry, sources familiar with the matter said that two were high-ranking.
There is no suggestion anyone in this article is corrupt, only that some staff were asked to take leave while the department examined its processes and integrity.
Liberal Senator Jane Hume and ACT independent Senator David Pocock, who have both frequently examined department officials over its operations at Senate hearings, criticised the department for its opacity.
“Unfortunately, the Department of Parliamentary Services has become a department of mystery,” Hume said.
“This is a department that runs [Parliament House]. It runs our security, it runs the Parliamentary Library, it runs Hansard and broadcasting. It has really important functions. It underpins our democracy, but it’s so opaque.”
Pocock said he received more internal complaints about DPS than any other government department or agency. “It’s very concerning that we have our National Anti-Corruption Commission looking at the department that’s meant to be keeping our democracy, running parliament, supporting parliamentarians,” he said.
“There’s a very high threshold to be investigated by the NACC, and so some serious things have gone wrong, and we know that there’s ongoing investigations. I would love to see more transparency about what the investigations are – I think it is in the public interest, and that’s how you change culture.”
An organisational chart for the DPS, which was on the parliamentary website as recently as last week, showed that 11 of the department’s top 24 positions were filled by employees who were “acting” in those roles.
A departmental spokesperson said that the chart was “outdated” and supplied an updated organisational chart, which showed a recent restructure of the higher echelons of the department.
“The number of acting SES officers has reduced as DPS has progressed several competitive recruitment rounds and accessed whole-of-government competitive recruitment lists from other recruitment processes to fill vacant positions on a permanent basis,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have also welcomed SES officers on secondment from other agencies to backfill officers currently on leave.”
But the spokesperson declined to explain why some senior staff were on extended leave. “DPS does not comment on the individual leave arrangements (including duration and reason for leave) in place for any officers,” the spokesperson said.
DPS said Saunders’ exit payment had not been repaid: “DPS is considering the public release of a summary report outlining Dr Roughley’s findings. This will also include the actions that DPS has taken to action the report’s recommendations.”
Saunders was contacted for comment, and Stefanic declined to comment.
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The reality is that Richard and acting in good faith, with good intent and with no self-interest. Indeed, he acted out of a deep commitment to public service. He saw an egregious exercise of garnishee powers by his employer, and he stood up and reported it. The ATO proceeded to botch the investigation into his disclosure and only when the ABC did a feature piece on the abuse was action taken.
