“I’m a scapegoat”: axed public servant
A senior Education Department bureaucrat who lost her job last week claims she has been made a scapegoat because the department needed someone to publicly take the rap for the issues raised by the Debelle inquiry.
Jan Andrews, whose contract wasn’t renewed by new department chief Tony Harrison, told an Upper House committee inquiring into the school sex scandal that she been made a scapegoat, despite having very little to do with the issues investigated by the Debelle Royal Commission.
She further claimed the Education Department was deeply politicised and dysfunctional and that this dysfunction had contributed to the failings identified in the Debelle report.
“I was directly involved for just the first four days of this incident,” she said.
“I am not here today by happy choice. I have made every endeavour possible to address my concerns internally but to absolutely no avail.”
The career public servant said losing her job was an “unjustifiable and unfair decision”.
“I believe that i have been made a scapegoat for the sake of the department’s image,” she said.
You might like
Former Supreme Court justice Bruce Debelle produced a scathing report about the department’s behaviour following the 2010 arrest of an after school hours worker for the sexual assault of a child at a western suburbs school. Parents weren’t told about the man’s arrest, trial and conviction until October last year – a delay which sparked the Royal Commission.
Andrews wrote an email to then Education Minister Jay Weatherill’s staff informing them of the man’s arrest. Debelle found that Weatherill’s staff failed to pass on the information to the Minister.
Today, Andrews said the department had become politicised, with the department cycling through numerous CEOs.
“There was a culture of exhaustion at the revolving door at the top,” she said.
“Part of what happens in a revolving door climate is the climate is seen to be politicised. Senior staff start to jump at shadows, watching and changing their allegiances for sheer survival. I believe that some of the failings in the Debelle report can be attributed to this.
“Bad culture combined with bad structure is a formula for … major dysfunction.”
Last week Harrison made it clear he didn’t want Andrews and department deputy chief executive Gino DeGennaro in his team, following discussions flowing from the Debelle inquiry.
“All I’m prepared to say in relation to those two senior people is that through my assessment, my discussions with those individuals, what resulted was Mr DeGennaro resigning as of Monday and as I’ve already said … that Ms Andrew’s contract which is up for consideration will not be renewed,” Harrison said.
Stay informed, daily
“… I don’t believe I was in a position to have those two members a part of my senior executive group moving into the future based on my assessment of their individual involvement with the Debelle matter, but also more broadly in relation to them performing the roles as senior people in the organisation.”
Today, Andrews said she was “deeply upset” about being linked to the matters raised by Debelle, which she described as “guilt by association”.
She said she was told that she wasn’t being sacked for disciplinary reasons nor underperformance.
“Mr Harrison gave no findings against me from my response to the Debelle questions. He introduced a new allegation. He said he had formed a view that I had not taken care of the school in the months following the [issue].
“I had in fact followed up about the well-being of the school in the first half of 2011.”
She said that after she had been told her contract would not be renewed, she told Harrison not to focus on her sacking because the public would see it as linked to Debelle.
“He did so, quite fulsomely. He achieved the guilt by association that I had warned him of.”
She said the decision was “unjustifiable and unfair”.
Andrews also revealed her feelings on the day she discovered that the school worker had been arrested.
“You feel absolute rage at one person – the abuser – for making this havoc.
“I emailed the minister’s office and the chief executive officer.”
She said her carriage of the issue ended after the first day. She wasn’t involved in faulty legal opinions, nor was she involved in erroneous advice provided to then Education Minister Grace Portolesi last year.
– additional reporting by David Washington
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
