Corrections probes fraudster’s work

The Department of Corrections is investigating after confirming it employed fraudster Joanne Harrison before she stole $726,000 from the transport ministry.

When Harrison landed a job at the ministry (MOT) in 2011, she asked for a generous relocation deal, and claimed to have once worked for Corrections.

The State Services Commission told Corrections about Harrison’s comments last week.

‘‘Upon investigation it was found that Ms Harrison had been employed in recruitment by the department from December 2008 on a temporary fourmonth contract,’’ a Corrections spokesman said yesterday morning.

‘‘A full internal audit of Joanne Harrison’s work during her time with Corrections was immediately undertaken and is continuing,’’ he added. ‘‘Once the audit is completed, the department will act on any recommendations or findings.’’

Harrison, also known as Joanne Sharp and Joanne Sidebottom, was the subject of fraud allegations at Goulburnmurray Water in Australia before she landed a job at the ministry.

Her former boss at MOT, Martin Matthews, was appointed Controller and Auditor-general after serving as chief executive at the ministry.

He stood aside last week, as a new investigation into how he handled concerns about the fraud and treatment of MOT whistleblowers was launched.

In 2013, an MOT staffer warned of the need to be ‘‘squeaky clean’’ when discussing design work Harrison sought for a programme which had attracted ‘‘interest’’ from the State Services Commission (SSC).

Yesterday afternoon, an SSC spokesman said there had never been an investigation of the programme in question, known as Shaping our Future.

‘‘Shaping our Future was a programme of organisational capability and performance improvement at the Ministry of Transport that ran across a number of years,’’ he said.

‘‘SSC maintains an interest in organisational change programmes across the public service from a system perspective.’’