EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s husband Sam Burke was given a made-up, part-time government job while general manager of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation, internal government documents show, that boosted his already substantial salary by $60,000 a year through a ‘higher duties allowance’ that continued for years after he left the department role, the NT Independent can reveal.

The ministerial briefings also show Mr Burke was eventually awarded a massive $300,000 executive contract in late 2023 to continue his three-day-a-week role as “deputy” CEO of the Waterfront by CEO Alastair Shields, that also appears to have breached several public service employment processes.

The arrangements to pay Mr Burke his significant salary involved the Waterfront Corporation collecting money from a government department, as well as another government-owned corporation that Waterfront CEO Alastair Shields and board member Andrew Kirkman managed, which saw Mr Burke’s salary jump from a reported $180,000 to $240,000 in 2018 while he was on the extended higher duties allowance that was listed as “temporary” but which continued for six years.

The roles that provided Mr Burke the extra pay were created by Mr Shields and Mr Kirkman, with numerous memos indicating the jobs were not publicly advertised and were in possible breach of several public service recruitment processes.

The latest revelations have raised further concerns about the potential for fraud, unmanaged conflicts of interest and possible misconduct at the Waterfront Corporation that the current Finocchiaro CLP Government has repeatedly refused to refer for an independent investigation.

The documents show Mr Burke was eventually officially promoted from an Executive Contract Officer 1 position at the Darwin Waterfront Corporation (DWC) to ECO2 in November 2023 and awarded a top tier $259,824 salary, plus a car, superannuation and other bonuses, despite the role not publicly advertised in accordance with the NT Government’s merit-based hiring practices, and appearing not to have been subject to an independent Job Evaluation System review.

Mr Burke was paid the “temporary” higher duties allowance at the ECO2 level at first for a part-time, unadvertised role in the then-Department of Trade, Business and Innovation for three-days-a-week that ended after a few months, while the higher duties continued for years. He was later appointed “acting” and then “deputy” CEO of the AustralAsia Railway Corporation, where the higher duties continued.

A conservative estimate of the total higher duties payments to Mr Burke and related entitlements amount to more than $400,000 over the six years.

Under NTPS employment rules, higher duties allowances are provided to compensate employees who “temporarily perform duties at a higher classification than their substantive position”, which is typically not intended to continue for more than 12 months without an independent review.

Mr Burke was categorised as an Executive Contract Officer 1 at the time of the DTBI part-time job, which temporarily moved his salary to the ECO2 level.

Standard recruitment and selection processes in the NT Public Service are based on the merit principle, which implies that prolonged acting arrangements should be formalised through a “competitive selection process” to uphold transparency and fairness, which does not appear to have occurred in Mr Burke’s employment matters.

Burke’s part-time job created by Shields while wife and mate ran department

Sam Burke was first appointed “general manager” of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation in December 2015, while a ministerial chief of staff in the Giles CLP government, nine months out from the 2016 general election that saw the CLP wiped out electorally with only Mr Burke’s wife, Ms Finocchiaro, and another CLP MLA retaining their seats.

While having no stated managerial or business experience, Mr Burke was hired for the role at the development precinct by then-Waterfront CEO Andrew Kirkman.

Mr Kirkman claimed at the time that Mr Burke, the son of former CLP chief minister Denis Burke, beat out 45 other candidates for the job and was selected by a hiring panel that included long-time CLP bagman Graeme Lewis, who was then-chair of the DWC board.

The Waterfront Corporation stated in early 2016 that Mr Burke was receiving less than an ECO1 rate of pay at $180,000 a year for the general manager job.

However, a 2018 ministerial briefing authored by Mr Shields, who was then CEO, shows the DWC board “endorsed a temporary change to management arrangements” that saw Mr Burke, still called the “DWC general manager” at the time, take on the role of “Executive Director of Strategic Infrastructure Projects” for three days a week in the then-Department of Trade, Business and Innovation while remaining at the DWC two days a week – a job that was not publicly advertised and created by Mr Shields and a mate of his in the department.

Mr Burke’s salary then jumped by roughly $60,000 a year while paid at the ECO2 level.

The memo stated that the new part-time role was expected to “benefit both organisations”, particularly with respect to the development of the Chinese-owned Landbridge Group’s then-proposed luxury Westin hotel at the Waterfront precinct and the fantastical “international water theme park” proposed by the then-Gunner Labor government. Neither project came to fruition.

Mr Shields stated in the briefing that the job for Mr Burke was created “out of extensive discussions between the chief executive officer of DTBI, Michael Tennant, and I”.

Mr Shields’s wife Sibylle Brautigram was Mr Tennant’s deputy CEO in DTBI at the time, which Mr Shields did not raise as a potential conflict of interest in the memo to then-minister Lauren Moss seeking approval for Mr Burke to fill the job. Mr Shields and Mr Tennant, who left the DTBI role in 2019, are also known to be close friends.

“Any permanent structural changes will require normal recruitment processes,” Mr Shields stated in the memo about Mr Burke’s new part-time role.

That ‘normal recruitment process’ appears not to have occurred and a pledged “review of the structure and outcomes in June 2018” also did not eventuate, according to the internal documents.

The Department of Business’s 2017-18 and 2018-19 annual reports contain no reference to Mr Burke, or the role of “executive director strategic infrastructure projects” ever having existed. However, the annual reports list the “general manager of strategic infrastructure and projects” as Anne Tan, who was also a Waterfront board member at the time, who it appears Mr Burke would have reported to in his short-lived department role.

Mr Shields also stated in the 2018 briefing that Mr Burke’s DWC contract was then at the ECO1 level and had been extended “for an additional four years”, while the new department position was remunerated at the ECO2 level, with Mr Burke to be paid “under a temporary higher duties allowance” at the higher level.

It is unclear how Mr Burke’s DWC contract was “extended” for four years without going through a proper Job Evaluation System review and Job Analysis Questionnaire process at that time. Mr Shields and Mr Burke declined to explain what steps were taken to ensure compliance with NT Government recruitment practices when awarding the contract at that time.

Mr Shields claimed the DWC would recover the money to pay Mr Burke the higher salary from the Department of Business, which ran a $7.8 million deficit that year.

“Overall, this arrangement will realise savings for the corporation,” he wrote, without providing any details.

The Darwin Waterfront Corporation was also losing money at the time, routinely posting annual deficits between $500,000 and more than $1 million, while consistently bailed out by taxpayers.

The NT Independent understands Mr Burke was in the department role for between three and six months, however records show the higher wages continued for years, which was repeatedly renewed and approved by either Mr Shields or Mr Kirkman as chief executive of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.

Mr Kirkman maintained his chief executive role in government after the Finocchiaro CLP Government came to power last August, while other chief executives were dismissed and despite a judge finding last year that he threatened to blackmail a female staffer and inflicted a mental health injury on her while engaging in “aggressive” and “threatening” behaviour in 2021.

Shields and Kirkman moved money between Railway Corporation and DWC to pay Burke’s higher duties: memo

In June 2019 – roughly a year after Mr Burke ceased the Department of Business role, while he continued to receive the higher duties allowance – Mr Shields and Mr Kirkman approved Mr Burke to become “acting CEO” of AustralAsia Railway Corporation – another publicly-funded entity that Mr Kirkman and Mr Shields sit on the board of.

The memo from Mr Shields to Mr Kirkman stated that Mr Burke was this time to allocate three days a week to his role at the DWC and the other two days a week as acting CEO of AARC.

The role was not advertised in accordance with public service merit-based recruitment principles.

“It has been agreed the additional cost will initially be covered by DWC with funds to be recouped from AARC,” the confidential memo stated. “The DWC will recover the (.4) FTE and HDA (higher duties allowance) components of Mr Burke’s salary from AARC.”

The higher duties money was then scheduled to cease on September 30, 2019.

It did not.

Alastair Shields and Sam Burke. Pic: Supplied

Mr Shields and Mr Kirkman declined to explain why they would move money between two separate corporations they managed at the time and the potential that created for fraud.

Both men have previously denied any wrongdoing. They did not respond to questions for this article.

Another internal document from February 2020 stated that Mr Burke was to see his higher duties arrangement – first introduced in early 2018 – extended to April 30, 2020 for the AARC role, with Mr Burke’s position then listed as “deputy chief executive officer” of the railway corporation.

The higher duties still continued past that specified time.

AustralAsia Railways Corporation was established by the NT and SA governments to oversee the Adelaide-Darwin rail line and ensure the private operator meets its contractual obligations, while also expected to help drive economic growth and freight opportunities, however those with knowledge of the corporation have said the broader vision has never been achieved.

Mr Burke and Mr Shields did not explain why Mr Burke was required in the role of “deputy” CEO of AARC and what was achieved in moving him to the corporation in 2019.

Structure of the AustralAsia Railway Corp Source: AARC website

Mr Shields currently draws a $65,000 salary for his role as chair of the AARC board, in addition to the $116,000 a year he pulls for his part-time, two-days-a-week gig as CEO of the Waterfront corporation. He is also remunerated for his role as chair of the NT Racing and Wagering Commission, a board that he shares with Mr Kirkman’s wife Susan Kirkman, who Mr Shields hired late last year for an unadvertised, highly-paid position with the DWC following Mr Kirkman advocating a pay rise for Mr Shields six months earlier.

The AARC website currently states that Mr Burke was appointed CEO of the corporation in January 2019, while the memos show he was appointed “acting” CEO in June of that year, without the role being advertised or outside applicants sought. He was later appointed “deputy” CEO.

Burke signed latest contract six months before it expired, role was not subject to job evaluation

Government documents show Mr Burke remained on the higher duties allowance until he signed his latest four-year contract in November 2023, that for unexplained reasons did not take effect until April 2024, which permanently elevated him to the ECO2 level that he was already being paid at.

The contract was signed by Mr Shields as the employer and did not appear to go through a proper Job Evaluation System review or Job Analysis Questionnaire.

The NT Public Service adheres to strict policies on promotions and merit-based appointments, bypassing the JES review and not advertising for the role appears to have breached the public service’s policies.

The secret promotion saw Mr Burke’s salary increased to $259,824 plus extras and his executive position elevated from ECO1 to ECO2 for his role as deputy chief executive of the DWC – which was internally assessed as a two-day-a-week job four years earlier.

The contract makes no specific mention of AARC, but does stipulate that Mr Burke “shall carry out any and all duties as directed and assigned” by Mr Shields.

The NT Public Service’s Job Evaluation System was established to provide “an open, consistent and fair means” of reviewing the work public servants complete that ultimately determines the classification for jobs.

The JES and the Job Analysis Questionnaire (JAQ) process was designed to maintain fairness and integrity in the public services’ recruitment and classification processes, according to the government, while upholding the employment merit principle.

All job evaluations are carried out by a panel of three trained evaluators from the public service.

“Where a person has been doing a job that has been re-evaluated at a higher level for some time, recruitment to the job in accordance with the NTPS selection procedures is the normal course of action,” states the Public Employment Commissioner’s handbook on JES.

It also states that while one person may have done the job for some time, there may be a better candidate and that “the principle of merit is about finding the best person to perform at the new level of the job”, meaning the employee who holds the job is not guaranteed to keep it.

Because Mr Burke’s latest contract officially bumped him up from ECO1 to ECO2, his current job should have been evaluated before he was awarded a raise and promotion and publicly advertised, sources with knowledge of public service rules said.

Mr Burke did not provide any evidence of a review being carried out before he was promoted to the ECO2 level and did not respond to questions for this article.