Sacked fire boss gets top job
The woman the Government sacked as chief of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services has been promoted to the Public Sector Commission's corporate executive and is now in charge of public sector excellence.
Jo Harrison-Ward has led the Centre for Public Sector Excellence, where she is responsible for "developing the capability and capacity of public sector leaders and practitioners", since it was established inside the PSC in December.
Ms Harrison-Ward's salary is $313,786, in line with her former FESA chief executive contract that the Government renewed for five years just months before it sacked her after the Keelty report into the Perth Hills bushfires in 2011.
The report by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty was highly critical of FESA and its management.
FESA has since been abolished and reconstituted as a department with a fire commissioner and answerable to the minister.
Mr Keelty found FESA had been unco-operative with the Department of Environment and Conservation, local government and volunteer firefighters, describing its relationship with DEC as "fractured", "not collaborative and at times adversarial".
He found FESA needed "major cultural shift".
Ms Harrison-Ward left her job on the release of the report in August 2011, with Premier Colin Barnett at the time saying he had asked that she stand aside.
After leaving FESA, Ms Harrison-Ward worked for six months at the Department of Corrective Services before taking 12 months long service leave at half pay.
Public Sector Commissioner Mal Wauchope said Ms Harrison-Ward had since December been "leading the establishment and commissioning of the Centre for Public Sector Excellence within the Public Sector Commission, pending a formal appointment being made to that role".
"In the interim, and as part of this role, Ms Harrison-Ward participates as a member of the commission's corporate executive team. Ms Harrison-Ward's seniority, expertise and background equip her to competently perform the role."
Shadow emergency services minister Margaret Quirk described the appointment as "unfathomable".
