Overland cleared of revenge sacking

Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Simon Overland has been cleared of ordering his deputy to leave the force early in revenge because he believed he was a whistleblower.

Mr Overland told the ombudsman he believed Sir Ken Jones had engaged in serious misconduct and had leaked information against him to the media.

“It seemed to me that every time Ken Jones had a view about something, within a matter of days I’d be reading about it in one of the papers,” he was quoted as saying in a report tabled to parliament.

The former chief commissioner was concerned about an email exchange between himself and Sir Ken in which his deputy recommended an independent review after it was found three out of 10 murders committed by parolees could have been prevented if police had known the offenders were on parole.

“As a copper … you develop an instinctive feel for these things, and I can’t put it any more plainly than that, it smelt,” Mr Overland said.

“I felt that … he (Mr Jones) was setting me up around this because there had been previous media reporting on this issue.

“It had been very sort of, ‘Oh thank God for Ken Jones, he’s coming along to save the world.'”

Ombudsman George Brouwer began investigating after a disclosure from a whistleblower alleged Mr Overland had acted in several matters to disadvantage Sir Ken including that:

– he damaged Sir Ken’s chance of being appointed to the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC);

– he ordered Sir Ken to take leave on May 6, 2011, despite his planned departure in August 2011;

– he tried to discredit Sir Ken during an interview with Fairfax Radio after he had ordered him to take leave.

Mr Brouwer found there was not enough evidence to support the IBAC claim or that Mr Overland ordered Sir Ken to leave because he believed he had made a whistleblower complaint.

He said consideration was given to taking action against Sir Ken at least one week before he was sent on leave.

Mr Overland could not provide any evidence to support his belief Sir Ken was leaking to the media, Mr Brouwer said.

Mr Overland resigned on June 16, 2011.

Mr Brouwer said the whistleblower who raised concerns about Mr Overland had raised further allegations that he would report on separately.

He said he was unable to reveal the details of the extra allegations, under the provisions of the Whistleblowers Protection Act, which prevent him from naming the whistleblower.

Mr Brouwer said he had suggested changes to the law, on which the government had not acted.

“While I consider the evidence obtained during my investigation of the other allegation to be in the public interest, I cannot report on this,” he said.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews attacked the government for not acting on Mr Brouwer’s concerns.

“The government have yet again gone to extraordinary lengths to try and shut this down. They don’t want this story told,” he said.

Mr Andrews said it was clear the claim by Police Minister Peter Ryan that he didn’t know beforehand about Sir Ken being sent on gardening leave was in tatters.

“Not only did he know about it, he green-lighted it, and all the faux outrage … it’s all nonsense.”

Mr Ryan said he had a discussion with Mr Overland about the “general proposition” of Sir Ken being sent on leave the morning he was ordered out but at no time did the former chief commissioner mention he would act that day.

When faced with cries from the opposition benches in parliament that he could not be believed, Mr Ryan quoted actor Jack Nicholson from a movie, by saying: “You can’t handle the truth.”

Outside parliament, he told reporters the ombudsman’s request to be able to name whistleblowers if it was in the public interest would be considered as part of legislation setting up the IBAC.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies said the report showed there was no evidence Sir Ken provided leaks to the media, nor was he involved in a campaign to oust Mr Overland.

“Clearly, if there was a campaign, and it’s accepted by many that there was, Sir Ken Jones was the wrong target, yet he still got napalmed,” Mr Davies told reporters.

Mr Davies said the report did not show Mr Overland in a good light and suggested Sir Ken was shown the door for challenging decisions he thought were bad for the force and the community.

“If not being a yes man is the requirement to being shown the door then this is probably a classic example,” he said.

Mr Davies said the coincidental release of another report on Thursday by the Office of Police Integrity, highlighting leaking and conflict of interest problems in the force, was “breathtaking”.

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes