Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jordan Williams: Taxpayers Union Executive Director on the investigation into the Ministry of Justice for Russell Harrison pay saga

Transcript

Jordan Williams: Taxpayers Union Executive Director on the investigation into the Ministry of Justice for Russell Harrison pay saga · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Looks like the x Lotto presenter Russell Harrison wasn't the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: only one getting paid by the taxpayer while under investigation.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The Taxpayers Union has revealed that four more employees at
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the Ministry of Justice are on leave while facing criminal
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: charges or serious misconduct investigations. Jordan Williams Taxpayers Union with
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: us this morning, get a Jordan, Good morning, Ryan. So
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, isn't there I've seen your thing and some
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of them been on leave for quite a while twenty
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: five weeks, sixteen weeks. But is there not an element
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of their innocent until they're proven guilty here?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, of course, But once you're off work for more
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: than six months, it's pretty clear that you're actually unable
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to perform your job. And the question is who should
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: that burden rest on. Any private sector employer is not
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: going to tolerate having someone on garden leave fully paid
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: for more than what the sixteen weeks is bad in US,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but to find one that is more than six months
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: is as I said, it clearly wouldn't be tolerated in
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the private sector. If you can't do your job, you
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: shouldn't continue to be paid to do a job. And
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: what we have here is case in point of a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: minister who has clearly lost confidence in the chief executive,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in this case the Secretary of Justice. Remember that the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Russell Harrison incident was hidden from him. It came as
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: a surprise to the minister. And what happened yesterday was
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: really interesting. Literally within five minutes of the Minister announcing
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: this so called rapid review of the performance of his
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: own ministry and chief Executive, that's when we got the
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: OIA back about this new information. So this is what
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: has driven this. But the key problem is ministers are
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: unable to sack or the higher the chief executives for
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: their own departments, so it all goes through a third party,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the Public Services Commission. And I think what would be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: really interesting to find out is, because you know, they've
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: got to apparently the task with fixing it, how many
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: people at the Public Service Commission are facing this exact
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: instance of being paid to work, well, sorry, not paid
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to work from home, being paid not to work because
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: they're facing any charges or allegations of very serious misconduct.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Do you think it's do you think it's conspiracy? Who
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: do you think it's in competence that they actually didn't
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: realize they no one ever went into Oh, actually, let's
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: do a tally up of how many are currently being
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: investigated and how long they've been paid for.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Well, your HR departments, we surely know, even in big departments,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: who's facing criminal charges or serious misconduct charges. You know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: spending peoples a is a pretty big step. I don't
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: think it's a conspiracy. I think it's just the culture
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: within the public service of sort of gliding on and
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: not really worrying about the dollars and cents that because
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: taxpayers are flitting the bill, the bill even in a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: big corporate can you imagine someone like Nie zeal And
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: suspending someone because they're facing criminal charges, but just keeping
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: them on the payroll and forgetting about them.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: No, not for five years, certainly not. Jordan Williams, I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: appreciate you being on the show this morning. From the Taxpayers.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: You for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 3:33
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