Council chases dodgy staffers

TOWNSVILLE City Council has pledged to crack down on internal fraud and corruption with the addition of two investigators to its ranks.

A focus on complaints handling and fraud is key in the new organisational structure.

Key areas will include misconduct, work practices, corrupt conduct, harassment and discrimination and workplace health and safety incidents.

Council chief executive officer Adele Young said the new positions would improve investigations into misconduct.

“Until now, this work was in part performed by human relations staff, which is not best practice and, in the Nous Report, found to be inappropriate,” she said.

“The appointment of investigators will ensure that council has dedicated staff, located within the Internal Audit Office, with the necessary skills to investigate the complex and broad range of complaints the organisation receives every year.”

Ms Young said the positions would work from the internal audit office to provide effective and timely investigations of internal and public complaints.

“Having those skills within council will also greatly reduce the need to hire external contractors to provide specialist services,” she said.

It comes a week after the council came under fire for its restructure, with The Services Union criticising the amount of jobs the organisation had proposed to axe.

The council has since announced its final restructure, with 144 jobs to be cut.

Union secretary Neil Henderson said that, while it was not unusual for councils to employ investigators, having two raised questions around the amount of work at hand.

“I don’t know what incidents Townsville has but with there being two of them I don’t know how much work they have going for them,” he said.

“We will be engaging in consultation regarding council’s final restructure.

“There are no position descriptions to go with jobs that they say are being created, so it’s difficult for people to know what to aspire to apply for.

“They’re the matters that we will be pursuing with the council and we’re in discussions with council as we speak.”

Mr Henderson said there were still a lot of rumours and uncertainty surrounding the council restructure.

“We’re very keen to stabilise the issue,” he said.

“Job security is what is utmost in our minds and that’s what we will be pursuing.”

Applications for the two investigative positions within the council close on Friday.