Six Ambulance Victoria employees have been suspended over allegations of serious misconduct. It is understood employees from the payroll department are alleged to have frequently claimed overtime or been paid for shifts they did not work. Ambulance Victoria said an investigation into the matter was ongoing.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Ambulance Victoria is an organisation familiar with pressure, but today the pressure was
00:07ramping up from multiple directions.
00:09I'm deeply concerned about this, the allegations of this disgraceful behaviour.
00:15Half a dozen Ambulance Victoria office staff are under investigation over what the agency
00:19describes as allegations of serious misconduct.
00:23It was reportedly a payroll department scam to the value of $3.5 million and is understood
00:29to have involved fake overtime and payment for shifts not worked.
00:33If these allegations are true, then people will need to go and there will need to be
00:37a clean up.
00:38Ambulance Victoria didn't make anyone available to answer questions today, but in a statement
00:43said the allegations were raised with the Chief Executive early last year and were immediately
00:48referred to IBAC and that an internal investigation remains underway.
00:53Because I find this behaviour so unacceptable, I don't want to compromise the investigation
00:57by making any further comments that I might like to make.
01:00The union representing Ambulance Victoria's office staff wants to know why the investigation
01:05didn't remain confidential until its conclusion.
01:08I would like to see senior officials at Ambulance Victoria swear on a stack of Bibles that they
01:14did not leak this information.
01:16Who cares whether it's an internal hit or not, is it true is the more important point
01:19in my view.
01:20So if it's true, people will need to go and they'll need to be held accountable.
01:25Everyone in Ambulance Victoria should be focused on supporting the work of hard working
01:29paramedics.
01:30But those paramedics, currently in the midst of a pay dispute, aren't happy.
01:35The paramedics union is preparing to release the results of a no confidence vote over Ambulance
01:40Victoria's management.
01:42That's expected tomorrow.