Face of the Day

Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster is no longer the head of the Social Investment Agency after going on leave following the release of a damming report into his police executive.

On Wednesday afternoon the Public Service Commission confirmed Coster’s resignation.

Coster had been on leave for three weeks from his role as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency – a role he was paid $580,000 per year to do.

This week, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said he would have an update on Coster’s employment “in the not too distant future”.

“I respect Mr Coster’s decision. It was the right thing to do,” said Roche in the announcement on Wednesday.

“I also acknowledge that the IPCA found no evidence of corruption or cover-up when undertaking their review. While the IPCA found serious leadership failures occurred, there was no evidence of senior officers consciously doing the wrong thing or setting out to undermine the integrity of the organisation.

“What is clear however, is that there was significant evidence of failures within the organisation that Mr Coster was then accountable for. Systems, processes, delegations and behaviours that you would expect to be embedded were not followed.

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