Updated
The outgoing Health Department boss has told a Senate inquiry she has no record of a quickly organised meeting with Sport Australia officials over the sports rorts saga, because she has destroyed her notebooks.
Key points:
- Glenys Beauchamp destroyed her notebooks, where notes from a meeting with Sport Australia over the colour-coded spreadsheet may have been kept
- Former Sport Australia boss Kate Walker said she was "surprised" to see the spreadsheet
- Labor have asked the Public Service Commissioner to look in to the destruction of the notes
Glenys Beauchamp was called to give evidence to a Senate investigation into the handling of a contentious $100 million sports grants program which the auditor-general has criticised as politically biased.
Senators grilled her over a teleconference with former Sport Australia chief executive Kate Palmer and chair John Wylie which took place hours after Ms Palmer had been shown a colour-coded spreadsheet by then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie's office.
"I have destroyed all of my notebooks and notes," Ms Beauchamp told Labor senator and Opposition sports spokesman Don Farrell.
"As a private citizen I should not have notebooks and things, as a private citizen, after midnight tonight."
Ms Beauchamp argued the notebooks only contained her "scratchings", and she was not sure whether other records existed, given it was an "ad hoc" meeting.
Her long public service career comes to an end Friday evening, after she retires as Secretary of the Federal Health Department.
The Federal Opposition believed it could be a breach of the Archives Act, which says that "Commonwealth records" need to be preserved.
"Examples of these types of records are drafts of documents that do not record significant changes in policy or direction, and informal notes and diaries," the Australian Public Service Commission states on its website.
Opposition public service spokewsoman Katy Gallagher said her office was drafting a letter to public service commissioner Peter Woolcott for his opinion on the situation.
"And if need be, [Mr Woolcott can] provide further guidance about what constitutes a record, and how those records need to be handled," Senator Gallagher said.
"At the end of the day, these records are gone, so they're lost forever.
"I don't want to create mischief around this, in terms of it's [Ms Beauchamp's] last day today, she's leaving the public service, but I think there are questions to be answered as to why these notebooks were destroyed at the end of January."
Sport boss 'surprised' to see spreadsheet
Earlier, former Sport Australia chief executive Kate Palmer had told the inquiry she had been "surprised" to see the colour-coded spreadsheet, which had matched the merit scores her organisations gave sporting club applications alongside the electorates they were in.The spreadsheet has been the cause of significant political debate, with critics of the program claiming it to be evidence of pre-election pork barrelling.
In a scathing report, the auditor-general had said then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie's office had ignored advice from Sport Australia in awarding the grants across the country.
Clubs which had received high scores in Sport Australia's assessment process were overlooked in favour of lower-ranked clubs, and the auditor-general said a disproportionate number of clubs in marginal Coalition seats were awarded funding.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly argued there was no breach of the rules.
Ms Palmer, who left the role at the end of January, said she was first shown the spreadsheet before a Senate estimates hearing last year.
She said a teleconference with Ms Beauchamp, as the secretary of the department with responsibility for sport, was organised within hours.
"It was to discuss the fact that we had seen and received this spreadsheet, the coloured spreadsheet, and it was about the next steps we would take," Ms Palmer said.
The former chief executive believed the anger and disappointment from clubs who missed out on funding was understandable, although the minister's office always held the power to make the final decision.
"I think they are justified," Ms Palmer said.
"However, the guidelines were very clear about the process, and that, I think, highlights the need for us to be much clearer in our communication around the guidelines."
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