EDITORIAL: The Fyles Government’s failure to recruit a new ICAC Inspector while a major corruption investigation into their members and staff is underway is deeply troubling for our democracy and could lead one to believe they did it on purpose, to delay the release of Michael Riches’s investigation into their alleged theft of taxpayer money during the last election campaign.

It is no secret Riches is investigating Labor politicians, their staffers, senior public servants and others in relation to the travel rorts scandal that saw an orchestrated effort to ensure Labor’s 2020 re-election campaign victory by using at least $40,000 of public money to fly into remote communities in marginal seats on polling days.

But to learn this week that ICAC Inspector Bruce McClintock’s five-year tenure came to an end before anyone was recruited to replace him is outright shocking in its incompetence. So shocking, in fact, that maybe it isn’t incompetence at all.

The Inspector plays a key role in the functioning of the Office of the ICAC, a sort of independent umpire who ensures any complaints against the commissioner or his staff and allegations of impropriety are investigated independently.

As it stands, there is no oversight of the Office of the ICAC and any complaints sent about the ICAC cannot be actioned because there is no Inspector and nobody to independently review how the office is generally functioning.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles refused to explain in Parliament this week why the position was not recruited – or the recruitment process even started – before his contract expired on September 27, which should have been done six months ago.

She claimed her department is currently assembling a panel to determine the next Inspector, which she said has been recently advertised – a month after the role was vacated.

The worst part – worse than the secrecy – is the lying.

Fyles told Parliament that any complaints will be forwarded by Mr Riches to a generic email account and when the new Inspector is appointed, he or she will start going through the backlog of issues, as if they were just coming back from holidays. She actually said that.

This is incompetence writ large if it weren’t for the fact she was lying again.

Riches told the NT Independent this week that “in the absence of an Inspector, there is no entity to which a complaint can be forwarded”.

Monkeying around with the ICAC Act while under investigation was also a bad look for the Fyles Government this week.

Even more troubling was Fyles’s answer when asked by Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro who was dealing with the Inspector’s workload right now while the position is vacant.

She responded by saying she would have “a conversation” with Lia later. This did not answer the question publicly and did nothing to alleviate the already fragile confidence in the anti-corruption watchdog, and for that matter, any confidence that the CLP will hold the government accountable for stealing taxpayer money at the last election, which they have been remarkably silent on. (We’ll get into that at another time).

So, while it’s great the Chief Minister will tell Lia in private what is going on, how about telling the public?

Fyles also claimed that an ad for the “specialist” Inspector role has gone out at some point over the last couple of days – a month after the last Inspector left the role – and will close on November 10. She also made a point of saying how difficult it was to recruit for that role. That part is true, and given the way things have transpired with the ICAC, there won’t be a flood of resumes pouring in to oversee that train-wreck.

But here’s where she is setting up an alibi. By the time they sift through the resumes delivered on November 10 and the panel is assembled (probably full of senior public servants with conflicts of interest), it’ll be time to close up shop for Christmas, putting the earliest date to appoint a new Inspector into February, but even then, don’t be surprised when she tells Parliament in the new year that they’ve had a difficult time “finding the right person” and the search is continuing.

Riches not keen to release investigation reports

We have already seen enough of Michael Riches in the past two-and-a-half years to know he’s gun shy when it comes to releasing a proper report into a serious corruption investigation. In fact, he has never done it.

Does anyone believe he’s going to release the biggest ICAC investigation in the Territory’s history with no Inspector in place to deal with the fallout and the complaints and legal threats from Gunner, his brother-in-law and other current Labor operatives and politicians?

That means the report will not be released until some time later – much later – after the new Inspector is chosen and brought up to speed on how dysfunctional this place is. Delay, Deny, Cover-up and Accept No Responsibility – as their former senior adviser described Labor’s policy for dealing with scandal.

Can they push it back until after the next election? That will be the goal and by the time February rolls around they’ve only got six months to kill. How long will it take to fill the role and what else have they got planned after that to continue to obstruct and delay?

Remember, Fyles recently hired Gunner’s former chief media strategist – a man who was onboard those flights in question – with taxpayer cash to seek his advice on how to turn her political fortunes around. It’s been observed that his hiring means she will be looking to replicate Labor’s success in 2020. How much influence has he had in helping Fyles concoct a plan to see the investigation’s release delayed until after the election?

Now, if we were to ask Riches if he thinks Fyles and her government did this on purpose, he would say no. Because in his latest annual report – a baffling document full of contradictions and nonsense – he declared openly that there was no widespread corruption in the NT public service, then provided details of all the systemic corruption he’s witnessed over the last two years. But to him, it was just a bunch of incompetents not following out-of-date rules and dysfunctional policies. Repeatedly. And not updating those old rules and regulations despite being told to for years. Over and over again, while nothing was fixed or even modestly improved.

Yep, no corruption in that.

There has long been a conundrum any observer of NT politics must answer: are these people utterly corrupt or just ridiculously incompetent? Riches has his answer. But the truth is more nuanced than one or the other. In this place, it’s always been a dangerous mix of both.

The issue now is whether Fyles will continue to pull off the appearance of incompetence before taking things further to protect her own interests ahead of the next election.