Trust? Who can you?

Certainly not Families SA.

In more than 40 years working in media and public administration, I have never encountered a government department with such a demonstrated (and ongoing) difficulty in adhering to the most basic standards.

Yesterday’s bombshell announcement that the head of Families SA had fallen on his sword after “inaccurately briefing” his Minister and chief executive is the latest in a horror 12 months for a department that has charge of one of the most sensitive areas of government – child safety.

The 2013 Debelle Inquiry into the handling of a western suburbs child abuse scandal ripped into its performance, as did an Upper House parliamentary committee’s 2014 report into the way the agency handles serious child abuse cases.

Despite those two administrative shellackings, we are now told that when Cabinet, the media and the public were briefed on what the Premier labelled “one of the most catastrophic events in Australian history”, it was done without a comprehensive written briefing.

This is a breach of the Debelle Report’s Recommendations 7 (a), (b), (c) and (d).

“In hindsight, this was a fundamental shortcoming in process for which I was responsible,” Families SA boss David Waterford said in a statement yesterday.

Waterford had fallen on his sword and resigned on Saturday after realising that his “briefing of the chief executive and the Minister was from my memory of reading certain documents” and “as a consequence the Minister made certain statements that were inaccurate”.

Are we to understand, then, that Families SA and its umbrella department have learned little or nothing in light of its recent scandals?

I’ve been of the view that the culture of this mob hasn’t really changed at all, a view reinforced by the intransigent “no comment” we continually get from Education and Child Development chief executive, Tony Harrison, in relation to an ongoing saga that he seems unable to finalise, despite promises to do so swiftly.

You may recall that last year, InDaily revealed how a Families SA employee was promoted to the position of financial counsellor while awaiting sentencing on a raft charges relating to the embezzlement of $118,000 in her previous job.

The Families SA social worker, Melissa Green, had won an appeal against a Magistrate’s decision to jail her and would serve a suspended sentence.

Key to that appeal victory were the sworn affidavits of senior social workers at Families SA that the department would allow her to continue in her job and that “the woman’s history is known to her employer”.

Harrison’s response to InDaily’s revelation was swift; his officials had been misled, he said, about the seriousness of the charges against Green.

In Harrison’s view, the letters and affidavits provided to the courts were not an official departmental endorsement of Green’s employment.

His Minister Jennifer Rankine went further, saying through a spokeswoman that, when Ms Green joined the department, her “signed clearance application declaration dated the 5 July 2010 does not declare previous or current professional disciplinary proceedings or any action that might lead to such proceedings in any jurisdiction”.

The evidence, however, suggested otherwise.

In a succession of stories, InDaily later revealed how the Government itself held documentation relating to disciplinary proceedings and court proceedings.

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws showed that: “While she was employed by DCSI [Department for Communities and Social Inclusion], Ms Green was subject to disciplinary action in respect to a number of issues relating to her employment with the department.”

“In the course of undertaking investigations into those matters, the department became aware that Ms Green had been charged with, but had failed to advise the chief executive of, a range of offences that were punishable by imprisonment.”

Green’s rap sheet whilst in government employment included:

• In February 2002 she was convicted for drink-driving, running a red light and driving while disqualified, resulting in a suspended jail sentence.

• In July 2002, Green was found guilty of possessing cannabis and delivering a prohibited item to a prisoner, although no conviction was recorded on the latter charge.

• In September of that year, she was again found to be driving while disqualified and placed on a 15-month good behaviour bond.

• In October 2004, she lost her licence for three years after another drink-driving offence, and in November 2005 she faced court again for driving while disqualified. It was this court hearing that would lead to the departmental misconduct charges for placing false information before a Magistrate.

• After a period of private-sector employment which ended after the discovery she had embezzled her employer out of $118,000, Green was again employed by the State Government, first with Housing SA and then with the Families SA, where she worked with “families at risk”.

In the aftermath of InDaily reporting the story of Green’s post-embezzlement promotion, Tony Harrison’s internal investigation found enough information to terminate her employment.

The investigation had made findings in relation to two other employees who had been Green’s referees in the Supreme Court affidavits.

These matters would be finalised in an “imminent” timeframe, Harrison’s spokespeople told InDaily in October and December.

But there was another strange twist to this case – one that Harrison has steadfastly refused to comment on.

In December, InDaily received a threatening legal letter from Hunt & Hunt, representing Families SA senior social worker Bianca O’Brien, one of the referees investigated by Harrison.

The lawyer’s letter claimed that the Supreme Court affidavit quoted in our story which said that the referees were “both aware of the amount of money that I had taken”, was “factually incorrect”.

The letter claimed the actual affidavit stated; “both were made aware of the serenity (sic) of the charges and as far as the amounts of money in question this has developed and changed since 2010 and still remains unclear…”

So, we re-checked the court file.

Our version was correct and we made that clear to Hunt & Hunt.

InDaily’s legal representative responded thus: “Accordingly, it is apparent our client’s reporting was entirely fair and accurate. On the other hand, the assertions contained in your letter are false and constitute a serious misrepresentation of the evidence presented to the Court.

“Needless to say, our client is extremely concerned that your client would misrepresent the evidence in this way and would rely on falsehoods to make serious threats against our client.”

Remarkably, Hunt & Hunt withdrew all allegations. We asked the firm’s chairman and she gave a “no comment”.

Education Department officials had already told InDaily they had concerns about the use of what they said appeared to be a badly altered affidavit.

In the many months since, we have been asking Tony Harrison for a response to a raft of questions arising from that matter.

Still, there is silence.

The most recent response came last week.

“Procedural fairness continues to be followed for the employee in question and that process has not yet been finalised,” Harrison’s spokeswoman said.

So, one year after our initial dealings (in good faith) with Families SA, we have a sacked embezzler who would have kept her job had it not been for a diligent media, and a senior executive who resigned after his lack of attention to detail was exposed by a diligent media.

And there’s a raft of other unresolved issues.

Trust?

Not I.