Liberal leader's staff lapses

He was also warned during the course of the 2010 federal election campaign that his staff should not be ''electioneering'' for the Liberal Party unless they were on approved leave.

Documents obtained by The Canberra Times under Freedom of Information show that during the election campaign, ACT Legislative Assembly officials asked for attendance records for members of Mr Seselja's staff, including some who ''purport to be taking time off in lieu''.

As well as being warned that he could be in breach of federal workplace laws, the Assembly code of conduct and its collective agreement, officials told Mr Seselja that he risked ''significant criticism'' if the failures were examined by the auditor-general.

The formal requests for compliance began with a letter to Mr Seselja on August 13, 2010, when Assembly deputy clerk Max Kiermaier wrote that with the exception of two staff, ''there have been virtually no attendance records lodged by any of your remaining staff since late 2009 ...

''The control weaknesses are exacerbated by the apparent absence of a number of your staff on leave, including staff who purport to be taking time off in lieu,'' the official wrote. Mr Kiermaier said that under Assembly rules, staff could have no entitlement to time off in lieu unless attendance records had been kept.

Mr Seselja, his chief of staff and brother-in-law Stephen Doyle, deputy chief of staff Ian Hagan and director of electorate services Tio Faulkner, who is also president of the Canberra Liberals, were all active in Gary Humphries' campaign to retain his senate seat in 2010.

The letter from Mr Kiermaier was the first in a series of increasingly strident attempts by authorities over more than a year to have Mr Seselja's office comply with its legal obligations.

In a letter to Mr Doyle on January 25, 2011, Assembly clerk Tom Duncan wrote: ''I must stress that these failures would amount to breaches of the federal industrial relations legislation as well as the collective agreement and the employment agreement between staff and members.

''As it currently stands it seems sufficiently clear that staff have been paid for certain periods when they have no entitlement to be paid ...

''In short, these are serious matters.''

Mr Duncan's letter came five months after a written assurance from Mr Seselja's acting chief of staff that the Opposition Leader had ''issued instructions for all staff to comply with all requirements''.

But Mr Duncan was forced to write twice more to the Opposition Leader, in April and September 2011.

In his September letter, Mr Duncan said that although some of the compliance failures had been addressed, ''some remain unresolved and a number of new compliance failures have now been identified''.

''... in the period immediately following my last advice to you, I am advised that [redacted] completed and lodged attendance records spanning the 15-month period to the end of March 2011. This addressed a significant compliance failure but, having remedied that compliance gap, it is disappointing to again have to report that no attendance records have been lodged by [redacted] since 30th of March 2011.''

In response to a series of detailed questions from The Canberra Times, Mr Seselja said in a statement yesterday that the issues had been resolved.

''At no time has any staff member benefited from putting their timesheet in late,'' he said.

Mr Seselja said the staff affected worked ''many hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime every year''.

''In many other similar workplaces timesheets would simply not be required,'' he said.

''That said, it is unfortunate that there was such a delay in having forms submitted from the staff to the human resources department. Further it is regrettable that the resolution of this matter took a significant period of time.''

Mr Seselja said the delay had been affected by a ''personal tragedy'' experienced by a staff member.

He said any work on election campaigns by his staff had been done while they were on leave but conceded the relevant records had been submitted late.

''It is publicly known and common practice for staff from all parliaments to take time off from work to volunteer for other campaigns,'' Mr Seselja said.

''This was done openly at the time and staff were on leave volunteering.

''In this instance records were kept, however, they were submitted late and I accept that this should have not occurred.''

The Assembly's secretariat has been compiling quarterly audits of compliance with the legal requirements to submit timesheets since an ACT auditor-general's report in August 2009 found non-compliance with the rules across party lines and that staffers might have been overpaid.

The documents show that while compliance issues involving other MLAs had been resolved through ''less formal means'' since 2009, Mr Seselja has been the only member pursued in writing for documentation of his staff's attendance.

The Liberals leader is granted an annual allowance of $484,000 to pay staff in his office, topped up with several hundred thousand dollars ''pledged'' by the other five Liberal MLAs from their staff allowances.

Internal Assembly documents show that Mr Seselja's office has 10 staff.