Inspector drops probe into first federal anti-corruption boss

A probe into the former anti-corruption boss’ alleged conflicts of interest has been dropped so that Australia’s trouble-plagued graft body can get on with its job free of distractions.

The decision by National Anti-Corruption Commission inspector Gail Furness to call off her inquiry into the NACC’s inaugural commissioner, Paul Brereton, brings to an end a years-long saga that diminished public support for the first national body set up to weed out malfeasance.

Brereton resigned last month, and his time in the job ended on Monday, following scrutiny over consulting work undertaken for the inspector-general of the Australian Defence Force, linked to his earlier role leading an inquiry into alleged war crimes involving Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Furness said in a statement on Wednesday that it made little sense to continue with her investigation because the actions related to Brereton’s conduct, rather than ongoing systemic problems within the organisation.

Brereton’s resignation, Furness reasoned, had effectively ended the matter.

“Finally, significant public money has been spent on these two complaint investigations. In order for the draft reports, which are in part contested, to be completed, further considerable public funds would need to be spent,” Furness said.

“I cannot justify such expenditure in circumstances where commissioner Brereton has resigned and, in my opinion, the systemic issues which had been identified have been satisfactorily addressed.”

The NACC had also spent more than $200,000 to help respond to Furness’ draft report.

Brereton quit three years into the five-year posting. Labor ministers had criticised him for failing to properly disclose his ties to the Defence Force, which could have compromised his handling of cases involving the ADF.

The person standing in for Brereton, Kylie Kilgour, said: “The commission respects the inspector’s oversight role. As acting commissioner I am committed to maintaining an open and constructive relationship with the inspector. We have a range of prevention and education activities under way, as well as a number of important investigations. There’s lots of work to get on with.”

Furness noted that the Brereton saga had already led to new protocols on managing conflicts of interest.

The debate over Brereton’s conflicts of interest was not the only one to have drawn unwanted attention onto the NACC. It was also criticised by transparency advocates and independent MPs for its handling of referrals connected to the illegal robo-debt scheme after initially deciding not to investigate despite receiving more than 1000 complaints.

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