THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has been lashed as suffering from "corporate amnesia" over its handling of the Fitzgerald inquiry file release bungle.
After hearings days of testimony in which many witnesses have answered "I do not recall" to questions about their role in the scandal, Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee Chair Liz Cunningham took aim at acting CMC chair Warren Strange.
"I have never seen such an enormous incident of corporate amnesia in my life," Ms Cunningham told the public inquiry.
"We have seen this procession of people who can't remember or don't recall.
"If there's something in the water down there you need to get it fixed.
"If what we have heard to date is the way the CMC operates and if the ability to recall information and experience is as poor as has been replicated in these hearings, you are in so much trouble."
Ms Cunningham also took aim at the lack of record-keeping.
"For an organisation that's supposed to have that skill-set and that accountability and that responsibility, the note-taking, the record-keeping and the memory is appalling," she said.
Fellow Committee member Peter Dowling accused some witnesses of using the "Sergeant Shultz" defence.
Mr Strange, however, defended the CMC.
He said the protocol was to ensure important incidents were recorded and he asserted there was a record of the events that led to the wrongful release of the Fitzgerald inquiry files.
Mr Strange told the committee it would be impossible to do his job if he had to make notes of every meeting.
"The expectation is that formal decisions should be properly minuted," he said.
"There are many things we need to look at as a result (of the wrongful release) ... I accept that."
Mr Strange said the CMC acknowledged the "terrible mistake" that he said had damaged the crime-fighting body's reputation.
"I think all of us who have had any role in this, we are greatly dismayed, upset, bewildered as to what happened," Mr Strange said.
"I do feel a sense of responsibility. I have spent many hours thinking what could I have done that might have led to this not happening.
"It has done enormous damage to the commission's reputation. It should not have happened."
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