That same month, Mr Catley allegedly directed a more junior staff member to delete an email about the exit from Transport for NSW of a manager who had a senior role overseeing the IT project, according to witness statements given to the Information Commission.
Friday 18 May 2018
The people attracted to a career in Tzar Peter’s federal super ministry.....
Brisbane
Times, 16 May
2018:
The information chief at
Peter Dutton’s new Home Affairs super ministry allegedly ordered the deletion
of a government record relevant to a request under freedom of information laws
when he was a senior executive at NSW’s transport agency.
Tim Catley, who began
his high-ranking role at Home Affairs in February, is accused of directing
staff at Transport for NSW to delete government information in 2016, in witness
statements given during an investigation by the state’s Information and Privacy
Commission.
Mr Catley vehemently
denies he asked anyone to delete government records. “The allegation that
I asked anyone to delete an email is not true and it is not technologically
possible to do that anyway [at the transport agency]. Professionally and
ethically I wouldn’t do anything like that,” he told the Herald.
Following a referral
from the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the state’s Information
Commission launched an investigation behind closed doors into the deletion of a
record at Transport for NSW to avoid public disclosure 18 months ago.
During that
investigation, the Information Commission was told of a culture inside
Transport for NSW of suppressing bad news, meaning that higher levels within
the department were not told of potential cost blowouts on projects.
The investigation also
heard that warnings about this culture of suppression were relayed to the then
secretary of the department, Tim Reardon, now NSW’s top public servant as head
of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
A preliminary report on
the Information Commission’s investigation, seen by the Herald, found that
a Transport for NSW executive issued directions to delete government
information relevant to a request under the Government Information (Public
Access) Act (GIPA), the state’s freedom of information legislation.
“The investigation has
found that the executive directed the deletion of records that were germane to
a GIPA access application and that staff acted on that direction,” the report,
by Information and Privacy commissioner Elizabeth Tydd, said.
Ms Tydd’s report did not
name Mr Catley as the executive who directed the deletion. But the witness
statements to the commission assert that it was Mr Catley who gave the
direction.
Despite her finding
about the direction, Ms Tydd determined there were no grounds to refer the
matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Attorney-General….
According to Ms Tydd’s
analysis, if the official who destroys the information is unaware the
information is subject to a freedom-of-information request, the person who
directed them to delete that information did not commit an offence.
And because other staff
at Transport for NSW later ensured the deleted document was retrieved, the
commissioner found the government agency had not failed in its duty.
According to evidence given during the
investigation, Mr Catley raised concerns at a meeting in July 2016 about emails
that detailed a cost blowout in the $425 million “Next Generation
Infrastructure Services” project. An application for information about the IT
project sought under the GIPA Act was also discussed at the meeting.
That same month, Mr Catley allegedly directed a more junior staff member to delete an email about the exit from Transport for NSW of a manager who had a senior role overseeing the IT project, according to witness statements given to the Information Commission.
That same month, Mr Catley allegedly directed a more junior staff member to delete an email about the exit from Transport for NSW of a manager who had a senior role overseeing the IT project, according to witness statements given to the Information Commission.
At the time, Mr Catley had responsibility for technology
at Transport for NSW as its chief information officer, a role he had held since
2012.
Early
this year, a “confidential” report by a consulting firm commissioned by Transport for NSW
revealed a concerning picture of the state of IT at the state’s transport
agencies.......
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