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Speaker 1: Afternoon. Former Police Commissioner Andrew cost has quit his role

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Speaker 1: as the boss of the Social Investment Agency. It follows

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Speaker 1: that damning IPCA report about how top police handled the

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Speaker 1: Gevin mcskimming allegations. In a statement, Andrew Costa says he's

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Speaker 1: prepared to take responsibility and that he got this wrong.

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Speaker 1: Sir Brian Wroach is the Public Service Commissioner and with

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Speaker 1: us Hi Brian good evening. So he's been paid one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty four thousand dollars. That's three months notice.

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Speaker 1: Nothing else, nothing else.

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Speaker 2: He's been paid as contractoral entitlements three months in lit

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Speaker 2: of notice he left today.

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Speaker 1: Has the government had to pay any money to him

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Speaker 1: at all for ministers accusing him of corruption and to

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Speaker 1: cover up.

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Speaker 2: No, this is a very clean process. It's taken longer

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Speaker 2: than some of us put of light. But this has

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Speaker 2: got the outcome which I believe appropriate. He has taken accountability.

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Speaker 2: He apologize the express regret he's lost his job. I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure what more we can expect.

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Speaker 1: Did he ask you to admit in a statement that

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Speaker 1: there was no corruptional.

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Speaker 2: Those were words that actually came from the IPCA, though,

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Speaker 2: are words important to him? And that's actually correct, and

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Speaker 2: so I had no discomfort actually restating them for completeness

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Speaker 2: because those things have mattered to him, and I was

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Speaker 2: happy with that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So in that case, were the ministers wrong accusing

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Speaker 1: him of a cover up and corruption.

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Speaker 2: I think ministers are best able to explain that. In

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Speaker 2: my context, I wasn't looking at him. He was an

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Speaker 2: employee of me, of mine. I had worked with him.

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Speaker 2: I have found him to be very honest, very straightforward.

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Speaker 2: So I've had none of those experiences of him. I

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Speaker 2: believe him to be a person of integrity and very

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Speaker 2: values driven.

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Speaker 1: Why did it take so long to get rid of him?

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Speaker 2: Three weeks is not a long time in the scheme

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Speaker 2: of things. It was important that we did the process properly,

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Speaker 2: that we didn't give rise to undue legal risk. I'm

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Speaker 2: very comfortable with it. It's a very important process. It's

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Speaker 2: impactful on him his life in his career. I'm respectful

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Speaker 2: of the time required to get him to the position

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Speaker 2: we got him to.

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Speaker 1: Okay, if you found him honest, Brian, why do you.

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Speaker 2: Have to go Because I don't believe he is able

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Speaker 2: to conduct his job and meet the demands of the

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Speaker 2: chief executive of the Social Investment Agency, because there is

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Speaker 2: fairly or unfairly, there is doubt in people's minds as

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Speaker 2: to his ability to do their job. Eves of the

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Speaker 2: view that actually it would be impossible for him to

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Speaker 2: do it in the short term. So in discussions he

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Speaker 2: agreed it was the best thing for him and the

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Speaker 2: best thing for the agency, and he believes very strongly

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Speaker 2: in that agency and his purpose and he did not

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Speaker 2: want to put that at risk.

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Speaker 1: All right, Brian, thank you as always for your time.

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Speaker 1: That Sir Brian Wroche, Public Service Commissioner. For more from

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Speaker 1: Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talk sai'd

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