HANK JONGEN AND JEFF WHALAN'S DECEPTION

[Guest]

[Marathon Man]

Hi everyone,

I urge you to read this and get an understanding of the deception Centrelink's PR man and CEO will go to to hide the truth from us 'customers.'

Hank Jongen in a  Centrelink past press release stated  Centrelink, ‘has an independently verified report indicating Centrelink achieves 96.7 per cent accuracy,’ then he stated, ’that report also found that the overwhelming majority (80%) of the 3.3% of payments with inaccuracies were caused by customers…..’

If my maths is right Jongen, using this independently verified report, is saying Centrelink’s error rate is 0.6%.    Jongen also makes the  SAME claim in a letter to the editor.

With over 170 individual errors to our family over a 5 year period and believing Jongen’s claim to be false, I wrote to the Minister requesting verification of Jongen’s claim.

A response signed by none other than Centrelink’s CEO, Jeff Whalan said in part Jongen was using figures, ‘obtained from a report prepared by the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), which  was independently verified by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).’

I wrote to the ANAO and asked among other things, if the statements by Whalan and Jongen were correct,  requested a copy of this report and evidence it was verified (as claimed by Whalan),  by the ANAO.

Well it would be fair to say the ANAO were NOT HAPPY and advised:

:     They DID NOT verify the figures as claimed by Jeff Whalan, and

:     The report ‘was prepared by Centrelink on FaCS behalf.’

So fellow Centreflunkers you now have  further examples of not only the deception as to Centrelink’s true error rate but the DISHONESTY as contained in Jongen’s letter to the editor as well as Centrelink’s  Media release.

At a later date an ANAO audit found the Centrelink caused error rate was ALMOST 12% and this was with Centrelink determining who was responsible for the error.  Obviously it is much higher than 12% which makes Jongen and Whalan’s claim of 0.6% look VERY VERY STUPID.

If the leadership of any publicly listed company made such misleading statements and published false performance figures, ASIC would be swift to lay criminal charges.  Despite this those responsible for such dishonesty remain in their jobs and eligible for their annual bonus.

Should any reporter be reading this post and like hard copies of correspondence of this Centrelink deception,  please reply to this post with your email address. 



MARATHON MAN (here for the long haul)


As a once defender of this nation I know that democracies function on trust and honesty.  No Australian should have reason to fear the arbitrary maltreatment by unaccountable agents of the Commonwealth, but with Centrelink they do.

[Smoker]

Good stuff Marathon Man well written 

If the leadership of any publicly listed company made such misleading statements and published false performance figures, ASIC would be swift to lay criminal charges.  Despite this those responsible for such dishonesty remain in their jobs and eligible for their annual bonus.

How true is this statment.

[Sphincter]

Smoker,

This is an excellent point and oh so true...................

[Marathon Man]

Hi everyone,

It is interesting the Management of an AFL football club sets the standards for acceptable behavior with Heath Shaw and Alan Didak now suspended by their CLUB for the rest of the season for LYING.

We have also seen Federal politicians and our political leaders caught DRUNK in Parliament and LYING to the Australian public.

This lying also filters down to Government Departments like Centrelink with just one example being the years of deception regarding Centrelink’s true error rate as contained in their Annual Reports and Hank Jongen’s utterances be it by press release or letter to the editor.   Thanks to the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) they exposed Jongen and Whalan’s repeated statements on Centrelink’s error rates as LIES.  We also note that Whalan has been moved on but Jongen remains.

As detailed in an earlier post when I wrote to the Minister Hockey he referred this letter to Whalan to reply.  Whalan’s reply to me falsely claimed the report on their error rate (of 0.6%) was independently prepared by FaCS and audited by the ANAO.    A letter I have from the ANAO claims the report was prepared by none other than CENTRELINK and NEVER audited by the ANAO.

When the ANAO complained to the Minister’s office about this deception they received a reply from Sheryl Lewin, National Manager, Ministerial, Parliamentary and Executive Support acknowledging their errors.  Lewin’s letter to the ANAO states in part, ‘the information provided from within Centrelink appears to have been incorrect or incomplete.’  No Sheryl Lewin it was NOT INCOMPLETE IT WAS TOTAL DECEIT.   

For the Australian public, Parliament and the ANAO to be deceived is one issue.  Another issue is did Centrelink’s most senior Management advise Minister Hockey of this deception and he then failed to TAKE ANY ACTION or did Centrelink’s most senior Management HIDE THE TRUTH FROM MINISTER HOCKEY?

Will the new Minister now follow the lead of an AFL club and seek Hank’s resignation for his published and thanks to the ANAO, NOW PROVEN LIES?


MARATHON MAN (here for the long haul)


As a once defender of this nation I know that democracies function on trust and honesty.  No Australian should have reason to fear the arbitrary maltreatment by unaccountable agents of the Commonwealth, but with Centrelink THEY DO.

[itsnotmyfault]

good detective work marathon man, I bet if every centrelink officer was hooked up to a lie detector their error rate would be WAY higher than 12% as most posts I've read from other users show that centrelink lies cheats and decieves to have everything work in THEIR favour not the customers as they lead people to believe

It's a wonderful society we live in isn't it? 

[Marathon Man]

Hi everyone,

In relation to Hank’s comments about Centrelink error being ‘extremely rare’ former Centrelink Manager and whistle blower Rod Whyte in his book ‘Centrelink Australia’s Artful Dodger,’ said:

'In my opinion these spokespeople are either seriously ill-informed about Centrelink’s true performance and are therefore inadequate and don’t deserve the positions they hold or they are deliberately deceiving the public.’  P 142

HOW TRUE, HOW TRUE.

Rod Whyte goes on to say, ‘if the amount of mistakes occurring in Centrlink’s payments is truly ‘rare’ then:

:  Why doesn’t Centrelink announce the raw results (not the manipulated results) of the Random Sample reviews?

:  Why don’t they allow an independent body to come in and examine the process where mistakes are attributed to the  customer and to Centrelink.'   P143

Interestingly Rod Whyte was a Manager at Centrelink who HEADED UP THE TEAM THAT MEASURED Centrelink’s performance.  He knows the real number of mistakes.  He knows who is really to blame.

I note the Standard of Conduct as laid out in the Public Service Act 1999 requires Australian Public Service employees to: ‘behave honestly and with integrity, care and diligence, and deliver services fairly, efficiently, impartially and ….’

So if as Hank says Centrelink errors are ‘extremely rare,’ then come on Hank RELEASE the raw results of the Random Sample reviews and PROVE to us taxpayers YOU ARE NOT IN BREACH OF THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SERVICE ACT.



MARATHON MAN  (here for the long haul)

As a once defender of this nation I know that democracies function on trust and honesty.  No Australian should have reason to fear the arbitrary maltreatment by unaccountable agents of the Commonwealth, BUT WITH CENTRELINK THEY DO.