The former CEO of Central Goldfields Shire Council Mark Johnston has been served with 26 new charges following a comprehensive further investigation, the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate has reported.
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The new charges relate to obtaining a financial advantage by deception for alleged misuse of a corporate credit card over several periods between August 2009 and September 2013.
This is in addition to the 41 charges served on Mr Johnston by the Inspectorate in July, which included two charges under the Local Government Act relating to conflict of interest, 34 charges under the Crimes Act relating to obtaining financial advantage by deception, and five charges of false accounting.
The charges were filed in the Melbourne Magistrates Court last Friday and the matter is listed for initial mention at the Maryborough Magistrates Court on 14 December 2017.
In July 2017 Johnston was stood down from his position as CEO by the then Central Goldfields Shire Council after the initial charges were announced. He later resigned.
In August the Central Goldfields Shire councillors were sacked by the state government following revelations of extensive financial and governance failures by the shire. The Andrews government introduced an emergency bill into parliament to dismiss the embattled shire, and appointed a administrator to oversee council business.
Six former councillors have since written to the local government minister, arguing their dismissal should be overturned.
In a statement, the councillors allege the government acted in too much haste by dismissing the council, and will cost the ratepayers of the shire extra for the cost of the three administrators and interim CEO.
The former councillors developed draft statewide guidelines which, they claim, are simple to adopt and cost-effective and would ensure future councils are fully aware of governance failures within the office which are the responsibility of the CEO, and have the opportunity to direct remedial action.
“Newly-elected councils especially need to be briefed on any legacy governance issues which they need to act on, stating they will encourage the government and other concerned bodies like the Municipal Association of Victoria to consider these, to prevent what happened in Central Goldfields ever happening to another council,” they wrote.
“(We) claim that the lack of democratic representation especially for such a long period and the cost of administration, are deep and growing concerns within the Central Goldfields community.”
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