NEWS: The Age - 06/01/08 'Lab facing drugs probe'

[hoptis]

Lab facing drugs probe
Carmel Egan
January 6, 2008

A HIGH-SECURITY police forensic laboratory that underworld boss Tony Mokbel once boasted of penetrating is under investigation by police over the alleged disappearance of seized drugs.

Operations at the forensic science drugs unit are being scrutinised by auditors after a mysterious log entry was found for material that has since vanished.

Auditors from the police Corporate Management Review Department are examining the force's Macleod laboratory to find out what evidence has been destroyed or gone missing. "We have identified some issues," said Commander Steve Fontana, head of the police audit team.

Detailed allegations naming a forensic laboratory staff member are contained in a document on police letterhead seen by The Sunday Age.The Victorian Forensic Services Centre drug unit has played a vital role in some of the state's biggest drug investigations, including the Purana taskforce crackdown on organised crime.

But the unit has also been embroiled in controversy.

Fears were raised that criminals had breached security after drug tsar Tony Mokbel was taped by police boasting he was trying to bribe a Victoria Police laboratory scientist.

Mokbel — now fighting extradition to Australia from an Athens jail cell — reportedly wanted drug evidence to be tampered with so that prosecutions would fail.

But the unit also came under fire from police, lawyers and the judiciary at the height of the Purana gangland prosecutions because of delays of up to 12 months in obtaining drug test results.

The manager of the drug unit, Cate Quinn, said at the time that staff shortages were to blame for the delays.

Members of the Corporate Management Review Department have returned several times to Macleod since the unexplained log entry was found in 2006.

"We have done an audit a long time ago and we have identified some issues," Commander Fontana said.

"Whether there is anything missing we don't know. It is not clear.

"We have identified a possible discrepancy. We did the audit in 2006 and have gone back and done post-implementation to look at what was destroyed. We are looking at one particular entry and asking what that might be."

Commander Fontana said investigators were trying to work out if anything was missing and that they were receiving co-operation from the forensic centre.

But the director of the forensic services centre, Alistair Ross, dismissed the investigation as being of little consequence.

"It is pretty much a non-issue," Mr Ross told The Sunday Age.

The Age

 

[phase_dancer]

The manager of the drug unit, Cate Quinn, said at the time that staff shortages were to blame for the delays

As the lab is NATA accredited, I would have thought regular audits would have picked up on any such irregularities within a few months - outside. Something doesn't quite seem right here IMO.

Perhaps the increased work load from staff shortages also explains why Ms Quinn, when speaking at the AOSD inquiry in 2006, appeared to be so out of touch on recognised advances in IMS/ TOF MS systems and other SOTA analytical procedures