Former ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold has been accused of mishandling expenses and breaking department policy by hiding receipts to claim alcohol and charging taxpayers $5000 for global roaming charges.

Seven pages of allegations, made by Shane Drumgold’s former office manager Mercy Wilkie, were lodged with the territory’s Integrity Commission earlier this year.

As first reported by The Australian, Ms Wilkie – who had worked at the Department of Public Prosecutions for 15 years when she put in her complaint – said she had a good relationship with her bosses but had long-running concerns about Mr Drumgold’s conduct.

She said those concerns were heightened during the inquiry into his handling of the prosecution of former Liberal staffer Brace Lehrmann.

Mr Drumgold resigned from his position as director of public prosecutions last month after a scathing report by Walter Sofronoff KC accused the former top barrister of misconduct and knowingly lying to the chief justice during the trial.

Ms Wilkie raised 21 causes for concern about Mr Drumgold to the integrity watchdog. A spokesperson for the Integrity Commissioner confirmed that Ms Wilkie’s allegations were now being assessed.

There is no suggestion that Mr Drumgold committed any wrongdoing, only that Ms Wilkie made allegations to the corruption watchdog that she believes warrant investigation.

Ms Wilkie sent the claims in March this year, around the same time that her partner – builder Matthew Thompson – became locked in a bitter dispute with Mr Drumgold over pay for work on the then DPP’s holiday homes.

Chief among Ms Wilkie’s concerns was that Mr Drumgold “had a practice of obtaining reimbursement for expenses incurred by him without providing receipts” and had tried to claim alcohol.

She said she had “repeatedly” told Mr Drumgold words to the effect of: “Shane, we cannot reimburse alcohol payments and some expenses, I need to see them. Statutory declarations, on occasion, are fine, but it cannot be the practice. We need full transparency. It’s taxpayers dollars, remember?”

She said despite having had conversations with him about providing receipts, statutory declarations remained Mr Drumgold’s practice.

After a conference in England in July last year, Ms Wilkie said Mr Drumgold provided a statutory declaration in lieu of receipts that had “concerned” her “because I had seen a photograph of a glass of gin on his social media at a time which broadly corresponded to expenses he‘d had incurred and claimed”.

“I believe Mr Drumgold completed the statutory declaration, rather than providing receipts, to hide the purchase of alcohol and/or other items, which should not properly be reimbursed to him,” she wrote.

Ms Wilkie said those concerns extended beyond alcohol and offered an example of Mr Drumgold accruing an international roaming expense that had not been pre-approved.

Mr Drumgold, when travelling to that conference, was told that he had a $350 per month international roaming expense and told Ms Wilkie he wanted to use his phone and laptop overseas.

“When Mr Drumgold returned from England, the DPP received an invoice for around $5000 from Telstra, and this related to his iPad,” Ms Wilkie wrote in her submission.

“I drew this invoice to Mr Drumgold’s attention, reminded him of our discussion about international roaming and advised that he would need to pay the invoice. Mr Drumgold said the iPad was work related, and the DPP would pay for it. The DPP paid for that invoice, against standard practice.”

Ms Wilkie also claimed Mr Drumgold directed an employee to buy a plane ticket for his wife, on a government account.

“Mr Drumgold advised that he would put (his wife’s) ticket on his frequent flyer points. A few days later, Mr Drumgold advised corporate that Qantas had put the frequent flyer ticket intended for (his wife) in his name and would not change it,” she wrote.

“He then directed (an employee) from corporate to book (his wife’s) ticket under the government account. When (the employee) tried to do this, she was questioned by Qantas about it, but ultimately (the DPP) purchased the ticket.”

Ms Wilkie also claimed Mr Drumgold allowed his daughter – a junior employee at the DPP – to use his official carpark spot.

Ms Wilkie said she was aware that “despite taking leave regularly throughout the year, Mr Drumgold’s annual leave is only reduced during the Christmas closure. Even then his annual leave accrual is not significantly reduced”.

Ms Wilkie further claimed her boss was meeting her partner, Mr Thomas, to discuss plans for Mr Drumgold’s holiday homes during work hours.

She said she thought those work-hour meetings were inappropriate but “felt conflicted about this because Matt needed the business, but Mr Drumgold should not have been paid by the Territory for attending a private meeting during work hours”.

Mr Drumgold and his lawyers have been contacted for comment.

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