Unions complain about silent audit
Unions say there has been a lack of transparency over an audit into Tasmania's largest vocational education and training provider.
An Integrity Commission report earlier this year found “serious misconduct” at TasTAFE, which led to the then-CEO Stephen Conway’s resignation.
Mr Conway was found to have increased deputy chief executive Lori Hocking's salary by $55,000 in her first 12 months in the role, and gave her an “incentive payment scheme” worth about $30,000 in benefits.
The Commission also found he created a position for her and allowed her to claim personal benefits using state funds.
The State Government says it has received an update from an ongoing external audit, but said it would be inappropriate to release the details.
Reports say the auditors have already made 25 recommendations about recruitment, procurement and expenditure.
Senior TasTAFE managers and the Australian Education Union (AEU) had earlier met to discuss issues of “mutual concern”.
AEU Tasmanian branch president Damian Von Samorzewski said he left the meeting with the understanding that interim reports would be made public.
“The discussion was such that we wanted to make sure that information was available, more so for the staff at TAFE to make sure we could build the broken trust,” he told the ABC.
“It's kind of concerning that there's a misinterpretation of what the AEU understood it to be when we sent out that joint memo on June 7.”
Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff has issued a statement defending the decision to keep interim reports under cover.
“The Government is doing exactly what we said we would - providing a quarterly update,” he said.