A parliamentary committee has recommended the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) investigate former Coalition minister Stuart Robert over potential links to the procurement controversy involving consulting firm Synergy 360.
The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, chaired by Julian Hill, has looked into how Synergy 360 won deals with government agencies including Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency, and the potential links to Robert.
In an interim report, released on Wednesday, the committee said it had heard “concerning evidence” that raised “serious allegations and questions about financial impropriety, improper relationships and undisclosed conflicts of interest with parties receiving contracts from the Commonwealth”.
“Some matters raised in the allegations were established in public hearings and corroborated by other evidence though many remain unresolved,” Hill wrote in the interim report’s foreword.
“A referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) by a Parliamentary Committee should never be made lightly and certainly is not done so here. In these circumstances, however, there appears no other appropriate course of action,” Hill said
“The report recommends that the NACC examine all of the evidence gathered by the JCPAA to date to inform its decision as to whether a fuller investigation of the matter is warranted to establish the substance of these claims.”
In a media statement, Hill said the committee had established a “number of matters” but is unable, “given its resources, lack of forensic accounting expertise, and the refusal so far of key witnesses to provide documents or fully answer questions, to make clear findings as to the truth”.
“An agency with compulsory questioning, document gathering, and investigatory powers may be able to properly assess these matters.”
Hill also wrote that there was conflicting evidence presented to the inquiry. “Rebutting these allegations, Mr Robert, his longtime friend, business partner and political fundraiser Mr John Margerison, Synergy 360 principal Mr David Milo and others strongly deny improper conduct,” he said.
“Hence the evidence before the inquiry is directly conflicting.”
The committee has also recommended that the Speaker of the House of Representatives authorise the commissioning of legal advice on the nature of the Committee’s power to issue warrants, “including situations where a person claims to be resident overseas”.
In additional comments in the interim report, Coalition members of the committee said they “as a matter principle” support the referral to the NACC “of any serious allegations of corruption that are drawn to the Committee’s attention”. However they did not see it as the role of the committee to request the NACC conduct an investigation into any matter.
“The NACC is an independent agency and consideration of an investigation is the responsibility of the NACC Commissioner,” they wrote.