Icac Finds Corrupt Conduct Against Former Mp And Staff

ICAC Finds Corrupt Conduct Against Former MP and Staff

MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday 13 July 2010

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found that the former State Member of Parliament for Penrith, Karyn Paluzzano, and her former electorate staff Timothy Horan, Jennifer Launt and Kerrie Donlan engaged in corrupt conduct in connection with the submission of false claims for sitting day relief payments.

In its report on the Investigation into the submission of false claims of Sitting Day Relief payments by a NSW MP and members of her electorate staff, released today, the Commission recommends that consideration be given to obtaining the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with respect to the prosecution of Mrs Paluzzano for various criminal offences including misconduct in public office, obtaining a valuable thing for herself, obtaining money for Ms Launt, and offences of giving false or misleading evidence to the ICAC.

The Commission acknowledges the assistance provided by Mr Horan in bringing this matter to its attention and during the investigation. In recognition of Mr Horan's assistance, it is not of the opinion that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP with respect to prosecuting him for any specified criminal offence. However, the Commission is of the opinion that consideration should be given to taking action against Mr Horan, Ms Launt and Ms Donlan as public officials with a view to dismissing, dispensing with, or otherwise terminating their services on the grounds that they engaged in misconduct.

The sitting day relief entitlement was introduced by Parliament in July 2006 to finance the employment by Members of the Legislative Assembly of additional temporary officers for their electorate offices when electorate staff were at Parliament House for sitting days.

The Commission found that in 2006, Mrs Paluzzano and Mr Horan agreed to represent falsely on the sitting day relief claim forms that certain conditions for payment of the entitlement to Ms Launt had been met. Ms Donlan assisted with the implementation of the arrangement by filling out the forms with false details. This resulted in Ms Launt receiving payments of around $4,200 that she was not entitled to, in return for which she made herself available to work for Mrs Paluzzano at the Penrith electorate office and sometimes accompanied Mrs Paluzzano during "door knocking" visits to constituents during this time.

Ms Launt later admitted that she did not work at the electorate office on most of the days claimed on the forms. Mrs Paluzzano admitted that she knew the forms were false and misleading when she signed them. The Commission found that she had falsely declared on various forms, unbeknown to Mr Horan, that he worked at Parliament House on sitting days in late 2006 as due to Ms Launt's status at the time as a casual relief employee, the claims would have been rejected. In 2007, Mrs Paluzzano engaged three additional staff members and continued to falsely represent that the conditions for sitting day relief payment had been met in order to claim around $3,400.

The ICAC has made corruption prevention recommendations to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, including that consideration be given as to whether Parliament's audit program of Members' entitlements has the capacity to detect corrupt conduct and, if not, to develop, implement and regularly evaluate a corruption prevention strategy that addresses these issues. The Commission held a public inquiry as part of this investigation over four days in May 2010, at which Commissioner the Hon David Ipp AO QC presided and eight witnesses gave evidence. The report is available on the ICAC website at www.icac.nsw.gov.au .

Media Inquiries: ICAC Manager Communications & Media Nicole Thomas 02 8281 5799 or 0417 467 801

Fact sheet: Investigation into the submission of false claims for Sitting Day Relief payments by a NSW MP and members of her electorate staff

FACT SHEET

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Investigation into the submission of false claims of Sitting Day Relief payments by a NSW MP and members of her electorate staff

ICAC FINDINGS
* The ICAC has made findings of corrupt conduct against Karyn Paluzzano, Timothy Horan, Jennifer Launt and Kerrie Donlan.
* Mrs Paluzzano acted corruptly in: agreeing with Mr Horan to engage in conduct that involved deceiving Parliament into believing (falsely) that an officer had worked at Parliament House on sitting days, when they had not, to obtain sitting day relief (SDR) payments for Ms Launt to which she was not entitled; and her conduct in making false declarations on SDR forms to obtain SDR payments for Ms Launt and three other staff to which they were not entitled.
* Mr Horan acted corruptly in agreeing with Mrs Paluzzano to engage in conduct that involved deceiving Parliament into believing (falsely) that an officer had worked at Parliament House on sitting days when they had not to obtain SDR payments for Ms Launt to which she was not entitled.
* Ms Donlan acted corruptly in knowingly preparing false SDR claims for the signature of Mrs Paluzzano and Ms Launt and knowingly submitting false SDR forms to the Parliament for payment.
* Ms Launt acted corruptly in making false declarations on SDR forms that she had worked at the electorate office on specific days when she had not.

ICAC RECOMMENDATIONS
* The Commission is of the opinion that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions with respect to the prosecution of Mrs Paluzzano for various criminal offences including the common law offence of misconduct in public office, obtaining a valuable thing for herself contrary to section 178BA of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), obtaining money for Ms Launt, contrary to s.178BA of the Crimes Act and offences under s.87 of the ICAC Act of giving false or misleading evidence to the ICAC. The last of these is in relation to Mrs Paluzzano's evidence before the Commission on 16 April 2010 that: she was not knowingly party to any improper conduct in relation to claiming monies either for her office or for any employee; and to her knowledge it was the practice of her office to have someone accompany her each day she went to Parliament from 30 August 2006.
* In recognition of Mr Horan's assistance in bringing this matter to the Commission's attention and during the investigation, the ICAC is not of the opinion that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP with respect to prosecuting him for any specified criminal offence. The Commission is of the opinion that consideration should be given to taking action against Mr Horan, Ms Launt and Ms Donlan as public officials with a view to dismissing, dispensing with, or otherwise terminating their services on the grounds that they engaged in misconduct.

CORRUPTION PREVENTION
The Commission has made two corruption prevention recommendations to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, including that the clerk:
* Consider whether and if so, to what extent, door knocking engaged in by electorate officers may constitute or involve "electioneering" or "political campaigning"; review the range of duties currently performed by electorate officers to determine whether they perform other activities that may involve these actions; and prepare written guidelines for Members and electorate officers that clearly define whether these two activities are permissible activities for electorate offices to engage in.
* Consider whether Parliament's audit program of Members' entitlements has the capacity to detect corrupt conduct and, if not, to develop, implement and regularly evaluate a corruption prevention strategy that addresses these issues.

Media Inquiries: ICAC Manager Communications & Media Nicole Thomas 02 8281 5799 or 0417 467 801


The ICAC was established to investigate, expose and minimise corruption in the NSW public sector which includes government departments, statutory authorities, local councils and public officials such as politicians and the judiciary.
For more information visit the ICAC website www.icac.nsw.gov.au



SOURCE: Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)