Inconsistent and unreliable investigation
The Department of Corrective Services has been ordered to reinstate a senior bureaucrat who was sacked in 2015, after being wrongfully accused of ‘corruptly’ ordering new curtains valued at $6,700 for her workplace.
Deborah Harvey was the director of the department’s prison officer training academy in Bently when she gave the order to replace the graduation hall’s damaged curtains just days before an agency-wide spending freeze was announced.
Several weeks after she authorised the purchase, Ms Harvey was accused by a junior staff member of falsifying documents to make it appear that the approval of the order had pre-dated the spending freeze announcement.
The appeal board also noted that the evidence of some witnesses in the original investigation had been inconsistent and unreliable. Ms Harvey’s lawyer said his client was grateful to have been vindicated and was looking forward to getting back to work.
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