The sacked chief executive of ACT TAB board, Philip Neck, is to take legal action against the ACT Government for unfair dismissal and denounced the gutless way in which he was dismissed.
Mr Neck said yesterday that he had been denied natural justice and was angered that he had found the dismissal notice under his door on his return from interstate on Sunday evening which he described as gutless.
Mr Neck was dismissed on the direction of the Minister for Sport and Deputy Chief Minister, David Lamont, after Mr Lamont had received the Pearce report into the Vitab affair.
Professor Pearce inquired into the contract with the Vanuatu-based Vitab and ACTTAB under which ACTTAB gave computer access to the multi-state super-pool and other services in return for a percentage of turnover, enabling Vitab to run phone and other betting on Australian races. He also inquired into why the Victorian TAB terminated it super-pool arrangements with the ACT.
The contract led to a successful Assembly no-confidence motion against Sports Minister Wayne Berry last month, causing him to resign.
Mr Neck said he could not see why he should carry the whole blame. He had received a letter from Mr Berry saying “”following advice from my ACT Office of Sport and Recreation, the ACT Government Solicitor’s Office and ACT treasury, I am pleased to grant the board approval to provide services to Vitab.”
Mr Neck said, “”Well, those government bureaucrats had a job to do, too. And I am peeved that we are going to take the rap for it all.
“”It is pretty hard to see why the bureaucrats should not get some flak, too.
He said he had been denied the opportunity to see the Pearce report with his lawyer.
There was no justification for his dismissal under the term of the contract referred to in the dismissal letter. That term obliged him to “”well and faithfully serve the board and use your best endeavour to promote its interests and welfare”.
“”I am just staggered they could use that,” he said.
Mr Neck said that in the two and a half years since his appointment ACTTAB turnover had increased $11 million a year and that he had worked up to 60 hours a week for ACTTAB.
The dismissal letter was signed by the new chair of the board, Bruce Glanville. It said, “”I wish to advise you that the Minster for Sport, Mr D Lamont, has given a direction to the board . . . to terminate your employment. . . .The board is required by the Act to comply with a direction given to it under . . . the Act.”
Mr Lamont has defended his action, saying it would have been remiss of him as Minister not to have acted having seen the Pearce report. He said he had not been in a position to release the report before its tabling and that the board members had received natural justice because they had legal representation at the inquiry and could put their submission and answer questions.
The Pearce report is due to be tabled today. Bureaucratic sources say that an agreement for a new link with NSW was secured by the old board earlier this month before the report was handed to the Government, but it is subject to formalities.
The ACT president of the Australian Services Union (which represents most of ACTTAB staff), Christine Tutty, said, “”The matter has been handled abysmally. The union is totally behind Philip Neck. We want our chief executive back.”