Unions wants the Corrections Minister to take responsibility for “wasting” more than half a million dollars over the early departure of the former prison boss.
Barry Greenberry resigned last month, walking away with a taxpayer-funded payout, just nine months into a five-year contract.
Nick McKim revealed yesterday that Mr Greenberry’s appointment cost more than $550,000 in pay, entitlements and recruitment costs.
Union Secretary Tom Lynch says the minister has not accepted responsibility for the cost to taxpayers.
“[There was] $260,000 as settlement, some $220,000 paid in salary over 12 month period and yesterday we learnt $ 77,000 paid in recruitment costs,” he said.
“So $550,000 for 12 months work, I don’t think that’s acceptable.
“Someone needs to take responsibility for the decisions that were made and I haven’t seen anyone take that responsibility, I think it goes back to the Minister.
“The Minister’s been pretty keen on slating-home accusations against prison officers for abusing sick leave or over time or whatever it is that’s occurring, but I think he needs to take responsibility here for responsibility of waste.”
Mr McKim told an estimates hearing yesterday that the Risdon Prison overtime budget is expected to top more than $4.5 million.
…
Mr Lynch says the union did not fully support the appointment of two top level positions in the prison.
…
• ABC: Overland backs minister over Greenberry departure
• Matthew Denholm, The Australian, Friday: Overland ‘preferred’ deputy’s denial over word of prisons boss
by: Matthew Denholm, Tasmania correspondent
From: The Australian
June 07, 2013 12:00AM
TASMANIAN Justice Secretary Simon Overland says he did not act further on a misconduct allegation against his deputy because it was denied and he could see no way to test it.
The former Victorian police chief turned Tasmanian bureaucrat said he discussed allegations made by the state’s prisons chief, Barry Greenberry, with his deputy secretary Robert Williams.
Mr Greenberry alleged Mr Williams asked him last October to produce savings plans that would be “unacceptable to the government and therefore not likely to be implemented”.
Under questioning in budget estimates hearings yesterday, Mr Overland said he raised Mr Greenberry’s allegation with Mr Williams, but “preferred” to accept his deputy’s denial over the word of the prisons boss.
“I specifically asked him about the allegation that unacceptable budget information was prepared for the minister . . . (and) Mr Williams denied it,” Mr Overland told the hearing.
“It’s a case of Mr Greenberry said one thing, Mr Williams said another thing. Mr Williams denies it. I much prefer Mr Williams’s version of events. I really couldn’t take it any further.”
…
However, Mr Greenberry’s complaint to the state’s Integrity Commission alleges at least two other Justice Department employees – prison finance manager Gavin Wailes and change manager Brian Edwards – witnessed the alleged request.
Mr Overland did not say whether he sought to test Mr Greenberry’s allegation with either of the men alleged to have been present, and The Australian did not receive a response on this question from him or the government last night.
Full story, The Australian, here
• Matt Smith, Mercury Saturday: The Greenberry files
• Matthew Denholm, The Australian Saturday: Letter lists Simon Overland compensation offer to prison boss
by: Matthew Denholm, Tasmania correspondent
From: The Australian
June 08, 2013 12:00AM
A CONFIDENTIAL letter shows Tasmania’s Justice Secretary Simon Overland made a payout offer to prison boss Barry Greenberry, despite telling state parliament this week that he “made no such offer”.
…
The Weekend Australian has now obtained a letter from Mr Overland to Mr Greenberry that appears to support the former prison chief’s version of events.
In the letter, dated March 15 and headed “without prejudice”, Mr Overland proposes a “repackaging of my offer” and concludes: “I therefore restate my earlier offer to you . . . ”
Read the full story, The Australian, here
• Peter Bright, in Comments: Simon Warriner at#7 rightly declares that [i]”if Greenberry wanted out because of ‘family or personal reasons’ he quit and it is him that owes us.[/i] This reversal of what one would normally expect indicates that it’s Tasmania which has done something wrong and not Mr Greenberry. Such a large payout for services sought but not rendered deprives honest-toiling Tasmanian workers of what they paid for but did not receive. Taking money off people without their consent normally constitutes theft.
• Observer, in Comments: Mr Greenberry’s CV, available on LinkedIn, outlines a 30 year career in prison services in the UK, much of it at a senior level. His qualifications in prison change management appear to be exemplary. Only a few years ago he oversaw a cost saving amalgamation of three prisons on the Isle of Wight – a contentious process which he saw to completion, with his professional integrity apparently intact. But, he survived less than a year in the Tasmanian prisons environment. Somehow I think that says much more about the toxic nature of our prisons, and their administration, than it does about Mr Greenberry’s abilities.
