Senior home affairs official abused public office to get her future brother-in-law a job, Nacc finds

The Guardian

6 hours ago

A senior home affairs department official has been found to have abused public office and misused internal information to get her future brother-in-law a job, including hiding their relationship and sharing job interview questions with her sister.
A damning National Anti-Corruption Commission report released on Monday found the woman, who was given the pseudonym Joanne Simeson, forged a signature and coached her sister on how to hide the family relationship, eliciting suspicions from colleagues involved in the recruitment process.
The report into the Nacc's Operation Kingscliff said Simeson, who at the time was the acting assistant secretary overseeing the department's global initiatives branch, had resigned from the public service before she could be terminated.
While at home affairs, she praised her sister's partner to colleagues, created a job requisition, approved it herself and forged a witness signature on paperwork to fast-track the process.
The woman's sister, known as Melissa in the report, was employed overseas. Her husband, known as Mark, studied while living overseas.
Joanne sought Mark's resume for the job application in late 2022 and told her sister an assistant secretary was eager to conduct a job interview.
'We'll talk [Mark] through the lie,' she wrote in a text message. Her sister responded: '… he's so bad at lying he's too honest.'
'Well he's gonna have to do better or I'll get in trouble,' Joanne said. Melissa replied: 'Yes good say that and scare him haha.'
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In March 2023, when Joanne put her Mark forward for another role in the department, a staff member asked if he would be suitable for the role, saying 'just want to check as his CV alone does not make him an obvious choice'.
She called him a 'friend of a friend' and said he should 'play along' with the lie. 'Also I'm the boss so they will do whatever I say,' she told her sister.
A colleague involved in the recruitment process said Joanne's interest in the role was unusual, describing Mark as 'this dude in Italy'. They asked another staff member if there was a connection or if Joanne thought they were underperforming.
After he was employed, Joanne told her sister she met Mark at the office.
'HAHAHAHAHA I JUST WENT TO HUG HIM THANK GOD HE STUCK HIS HAND OUT,' she wrote. Melissa replied: 'GAHAHAHAH … What a good boy he's such a good boy.'
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Nacc said her conduct was serious because of her seniority and 'because nepotism, cronyism and undeclared conflicts of interest in APS recruitment are an area of widespread concern'.
Submissions made on the woman's behalf said she had not received any workplace training on recruitment, had not had ongoing conflict of interest training and did not give proper and due consideration to her decision not to disclose the familial relationship.
She was described as being very remorseful.
The Nacc commissioner, Paul Brereton, said nepotism and cronyism were among the most frequently observed corrupt behaviours reported to the commission.
The corruption finding is the first publicly completed investigation by Nacc, which was established in June 2023.
Separately on Monday, a former home affairs immigration officer was sentenced for abuse of public office, after approving a visa application for her brother-in-law, and for causing unauthorised access to restricted data related to 17 people.
The man had his application for a visitor visa refused in November 2019. About 16 minutes after he reapplied, the employee self-allocated the case to herself as the visa decision-maker.
She was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, but will be released immediately to serve a 12-month good behaviour bond and pay a $10,000 fine.