Liverpool City Council records may have been destroyed amid an investigation by the Office of Local Government, which is probing the council’s affairs.
“As part of its investigation into Liverpool Council, the Office of Local Government has received allegations about records being removed or destroyed from council’s system,” a spokesperson for the Office of Local Government said.
The council’s acting chief executive Jason Breton was alerted to the OLG’s concerns on July 3.
Chief executive John Ajaka (right) was dismissed after a bitter falling out with Mayor Ned Mannoun (left).Credit: Dion Georgopolous, Geoff Jones
The following day, in an email obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald, Breton reminded all staff that council records were protected under the same legislation as state records.
“Please ensure you treat council records appropriately and that all records held by us remain intact and accessible. This is particularly timely advice as we work through the s430 investigation with the Office of Local Government,” he wrote.
Breton warned staff that “no records whatsoever are to be destroyed or removed … until further notice”. He told the Herald the OLG had not provided “any information about the nature of the allegations or to whom they may refer”.
Due to staff concern about confidentiality possibly being compromised by the OLG investigators working out of an office directly opposite the mayor’s, the investigators were given a secure room within the council’s new library. For weeks, they conducted interviews, requested records and carried out electronic audits.
Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig requested the probe in late April following Mayor Ned Mannoun’s ousting of the council’s chief executive, John Ajaka, a former president of the NSW Legislative Council.