An Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation has cleared and two Mid-Western Regional councillors and the council's former general manager of allegations of corruption.
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Warwick Bennett, now heading up Goulburn Mulwaree Council, was a subject of investigation. He took up the Goulburn role shortly after a raid on his office but at the time, assured then Mayor Geoff Kettle he had not acted improperly.
The ICAC report on a two-and-a-half year investigation into Mid-Western Regional Council will be made available to the public on application, following a decision at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday night.
According to unconfirmed minutes of the closed meeting, quoting from the general manager’s report into the ICAC’s findings, ICAC’s “Operation Farrar” did not find that any person affected by the investigation engaged in corrupt conduct.
“Operation Farrar” investigated allegations that the former general manager of Mid-Western Regional Council, Warwick Bennett, and two councillors had put private interests ahead of the Mid-Western Regional Council and the community in the exercise of public official functions.
Mayor Des Kennedy and former councillor Max Walker subsequently confirmed that they were “persons of interest in the inquiry,” while denying any wrongdoing.
ICAC’s recommendations include that councillors be required to declare relevant interests that they hold and that briefing sessions be prevented from being a decision-making forum.
At Wednesday’s meeting, councillors voted to make the ICAC Investigation Report available for public access under the guidelines provided by the Access to Information Policy and the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.
With Cr Kennedy and Cr John O’Neill absent, the councillors present voted unanimously to make the report available.
However, a motion proposing that council immediately release to the public the findings of the inquiry was defeated by the votes of Cr Percy Thompson, Cr Esme Martens, Cr Russell Holden and Cr Alex Karavas.
The reason for the ICAC inquiry has been the subject of much speculation since ICAC officers raided the Mid-Western Regional Council in May, 2014 and removed documents dating back to the year 2000, as well as computers, emails and codes of conduct.
Copies of the report can be requested using the application form available on the Council website in the Council Documents section, under the heading Council Policies.
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