Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) tabled a report on Tuesday detailing serious misconduct at the Department of Communities.
The report found long-term department employee Kerry Ravi and a contractor, Maria Irdi, ran the Value for Money Efficiency (VFM) project for more than eight years, despite lacking the expertise for that role.
Ravi and Irdi were responsible for allocating GST specialty consulting work, and directed more than $7 million worth of that work to their preferred contractors.
Referral of work was presented “as a personal favour” by Ravi and Irdi, and the pair were found to have circumvented procurement policy in ways the CCC said were of obvious benefit to Ravi and Irdi’s preferred consulting firms, and their preferred people within these firms.
The report made a number of serious findings against Ravi, including that she had procured benefits for herself and family members, had failed to disclose gifts, and manipulated the department’s tendering process to favour her preferred contractors.
However, the complexity of Maria Irdi’s employment relationship with the department has exposed a blind spot in the CCC’s scope. While the report identified Irdi had knowingly participated in Ravi’s corrupt behaviour, her arrangements with the department fell outside the jurisdiction of the commission.
“The commission is unable to form an opinion of serious misconduct in relation to Ms Irdi’s conduct because she was not technically a ‘public officer’, although she worked in the department from 2012 to 2020. She was engaged via consulting and labour hire firms,” they wrote in a statement.
The commission has recommended its jurisdiction be expanded over people who work within the public sector as contractors but perform work ordinarily done by employees.
Both department workers had received a number of gifts from those to whom they referred government work, including hospitality at high-end Perth restaurants, alcohol, flowers, and box tickets to international tennis matches. According to the report, none of these was declared.
The Department of Communities told the commission it has made operational changes to reduce the risks identified by this investigation, including increasing funding for its professional standards directorate.
The two firms identified in the report — Grant Thornton Tax Lawyers and Minter Ellison — have conducted investigations into the events covered by the commission’s report, and their investigation resulted in dismissals.
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