Sacking settlement Mother and daughter’s case over soon after start
A MOTHER and daughter suing a Townsville indigenous corporation after they were sacked from senior health executive roles over allegations of financial mismanagement have reached an undisclosed settlement out of court.
Tanya Akee and her mother Angelina Akee yesterday faced their former employer Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Health Services in court, but the parties reached a settlement just hours into the civil case.
Ms Akee, who was the chief executive director of TAIHS, and Mrs Akee, the then director of operational services, were fired in 2011 after audits into the company that allegedly found numerous financial problems, but a three- year probe by police was closed in 2015 without any charges being laid.
Since then the mother and daughter have been the subject of claims regarding allegedly inappropriate use of funds at the Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal Corporation.
Angelina and Tanya Akee yesterday took TAIHS and its former board members Robert Donald Whaleboat and Janice Burns to court, seeking damages and lost wages over what they claimed were unfair dismissals.
The case was expected to take five days before Judge Douglas McGill SC in Townsville District Court but hit a hurdle when Judge McGill raised questions about the exact misconduct against the Akees.
“I like to see in the pleadings a clear statement of what it is that the defendant says justifies an immediate dismissal and I haven’t been able to identify clearly from the current pleadings just what that is,” he said.
“I don’t want my time wasted about whether or not allegations have been made elsewhere about serious misconduct if it hasn’t been pleaded by the first defendant.”
Barrister Darrin Honchin, representing the Akees, said on August 23, 2011, TAIHS board members Mr Whaleboat, Ms Burns and Elsie Ann Lymburner, now deceased, decided to terminate the Akees’ employment.
Mr Honchin said after the allegations and the subsequent media attention, both plaintiffs struggled to get employment.
Ms Akee, who now works at Coles, told the court she and her mother were shown a report at a special board meeting held on August 4, 2011, in the TAIHS kitchen, which outlined concerns about a range of issues involving credit card transactions and expenditure.
“They gave us a time frame to respond to the content in the report, we were never given a copy,” she said. allegations