Auditors ambushed by criticisms months after giving COI evidence

Sir Gary Hickinbottom has expressed disappointment at the submission of a large document sent to the Commission of Inquiry (COI) criticising evidence previously given on several audit reports.

The Attorney General’s (AG) Chambers submitted the document on behalf of the Premier’s Office in response to what the Auditor General and government’s Internal Auditor told the COI at hearings months ago.

Sir Gary described the document as disruptive to the COI’s proceedings and said they were discourteous in the manner they were presented.

“The inquiry received a 34-page document running to 200 paragraphs, together with 79 annexes running to 859 pages. The index; that annex is not paginated, or those annexes is not paginated,” COI attorney Bilal Rawat said.

He said no proper notice was given that this was the sort of document the COI was to expect. Rawat also argued that there was no permission sought to submit the document nor were the COI’s protocols for such submissions followed.

“What, taken together, this document shows, is a complete lack of courtesy to the Commissioner to produce something of this size and this detail at this relatively late stage in the inquiry’s proceedings,” the COI attorney said.