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A high-stakes legal battle has escalated at a prominent NT Aboriginal legal service, with allegations of corruption against three of its top executives aired in federal court documents.
Key points:
- The ousted chief executive of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency is alleging corruption on the agency's board
- Priscilla Atkins has made the allegations in federal court documents which have been seen by the ABC
- The agency has denied the allegations and has filed its own defence claim
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) is being sued by its ousted long-term chief executive Priscilla Atkins, over allegations she was wrongfully dismissed.
NAAJA is the main agency providing legal support to Aboriginal people across the NT, where the Indigenous incarceration rate is the highest in the nation and rising.
In February this year, NAAJA terminated Ms Atkins employment.
According to court documents, she is now seeking to be reinstated as CEO, plus damages.
Ms Atkins has alleged she was sacked after raising complaints of corruption against NAAJA's chief financial officer Madhur Evans and chairperson Colleen Rosas.
In her claim, Ms Atkins has alleged secret, unauthorised payments were made between Ms Evans and Ms Rosas.
"Ms Evans made payments to Ms Rosas without Ms Atkins' knowledge or authority to which Ms Rosas was not otherwise entitled," the documents allege.
She also accused Ms Evans of secretly making "significant" unauthorised transactions on NAAJA's behalf, accessing Ms Atkins's work computer after hours, recording workplace interactions and unauthorised use of the company credit card.
Ms Atkins has also accused Ms Evans of bullying.
NAAJA has denied all of the claims made against it.
NAAJA claims allegations made after CEO investigated
Ms Atkins raised the accusations in a letter to three NAAJA board members, including Ms Rosas, on November 7 last year.
NAAJA has alleged in its legal defence that Ms Atkins had levelled the accusations in response to an investigation into her own conduct as CEO.
The agency said it had engaged a private firm to investigate an allegedly forged signature by Ms Atkins on her own 2020 employment contract "in or around late November" last year.
In its defence documents, NAAJA said it suspended Ms Atkins from CEO duties on November 28 to facilitate its investigation "into the validity of [Colleen] Rosas' signature" on Ms Atkins's contract, which extended her time as CEO to 2025 with a CPI increase.
"[NAAJA] engaged the services of an external provider, [corporate investigator Binder Dijker Otte (BDO)], to conduct an independent special audit into any irregular or inappropriate actions within specified areas of the role of Chief Executive Officer from 2017 to date," NAAJA said in its court filing.
Ms Atkins denies this, and said Ms Rosas had accused her of forging the signature about eight days after she had raised allegations of covert payments made to Ms Rosas.
Hearing set for October
NAAJA denies those accusations, and said it will refer to Ms Atkins's original email as a key part of its defence.
It also said it will rely on the findings of the audit into Ms Atkins's conduct by BDO.
The legal service said it was because of the findings from the BDO investigation – which was also referred to police — that the board decided to terminate Ms Atkins's employment at a board meeting in January this year.
It says Ms Atkins's was formally notified of her dismissal six weeks later in February
The matter is due to be heard in Darwin Supreme Court on October 23.