Mike Pezzullo, Mr Briggs, and their conflict of interests
Mike Pezzullo’s desire for power and influence may have led to his failure to declare a conflict of interest between himself and Liberal ‘power broker’ Scott Briggs. Rex Patrick On the Pezzullo investigation – part 4.
We’ve outlined four of the seven allegations made so far against Mike Pezzullo, which have been found to be true by the report’s author, Lynelle Briggs. (No relation to Scott Briggs.)
There were seven allegations in total, two of which were found to be false and were corrected when the report was released to us. We will come back to this topic.
Mike Pezzullo. A gossip who likes to sell his influence
Conflict of interest
Mr. Pezzullo allegedly failed to provide adequate conflict of interest disclosure regarding his relationship with Mr. Briggs or any conflict of interest generally; and/or [Redacted].
The claim refers to the involvement of: DPG recommendationIn August 2021, a consultancy firm affiliated with Mr Briggs, the Home Secretary was given agreement in principle to engage a commercial service provider by competitive tender to provide a fully scalable service to facilitate the entry and (COVID-19) quarantine of temporary skilled migration.
Originally the contract was for $80,000, later changed to $79,950; this was just $50 below the then Commonwealth Procurement threshold for a competitive tender of $80,000 (now $125,000).
Source: AusTender
The report appears to indicate that Mr. Pezzullo was involved in the purchase process in some way, but “no declaration of conflict of interest by Mr. Pezzullo was found.”
The report has been heavily redacted (due to unsubstantiated elements of claim 6), but it is clear from the unredacted portion that Mr Pezzullo had some involvement in the tender, citing unredacted reports sent to an email.
Lynelle Brigg’s analysis states:
“Mr. Pezzullo’s email [redacted] It did not contain any reference to Mr Pezzullo’s relationship with Mr Briggs nor did it generally identify any conflict of interest; and on August 17, 2021, DPG Advisory was contracted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a period of $79,950 for a period of two months (no explanation was given as to why the contract amount was reduced by $50 from the offer of August 16, 2021… )”
“On review of documents held by the Home Office in relation to this tender, it does not appear that any declaration of conflict of interest has been made in relation to this procurement” and further noted that this fact was supported by Mr Pezzullo supporting this idea in his response to the inquiry. His response was: “No conflict of interest declared.”
Lynnelle Briggs found that, on the balance of probabilities, the claim was partially substantiated. It considered that Mr Pezzullo had a direct conflict of interest and that “it was clearly necessary for Mr Pezzullo to disclose that conflict” and,
Failure to declare and document the conflict of interest was a ‘significant error of judgement’.
Mike Pezzullo’s spectacular fall from grace – Part 3
Allegations unfounded (and corrected)
Information regarding the fifth and seventh allegations has been completely omitted from the documents released so far. MWM, Because it turned out that both claims were unfounded.
We demand that these redactions be removed.
In their submission to the Administrative Review Tribunal, the Australian Public Service Commissioner argues that disclosing the unsubstantiated allegations “could still damage Mr Pezzullo’s reputation or cause distress because it would encourage public debate and speculation about that conduct, call into question previous conduct and revive an investigation that has now concluded.”
In the sea of guilty findings regarding Mr. Pezzullo, it is hard to believe that his not guilty pleas could somehow further damage his reputation. Here’s a clip from the report in which Mr. Pezzullo waves his hand in the air and says, “It turns out I didn’t do this.”
The commissioner’s claim that the investigation may be revived is deplorable. One of the successes of the public hearings at the RoboDebt Royal Commissioner was that people saw what was said and decided to come forward.
If there is no other evidence, so be it. Justice can be better served if reporting provides more evidence. If there is an unrevealed truth, the Commissioner hopes it remains hidden.
In particular, in relation to allegation 6 (conflict of disinterest), where it is arguable (from other substantiated findings in the report) that Mr Pezzullo enjoyed the advantage of being able to communicate his political thoughts and views through the confidant of two Prime Ministers and that he benefited from a contract with a company with which the confidant was associated, the Commissioner needs to clearly set out the false allegation and how the incident was handled. with.
On that basis alone, we will continue to pursue transparency on this issue.
If trust in the Commissioner is to be maintained, the full picture must be presented to the public.
Caught tangerine. Details of Mike Pezzullo investigation released
Rex Patrick is a former South Australian Senator and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an anti-corruption and transparency warrior, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior.”
