Golf outings and $500 lunches in undisclosed gifts from Salesforce
WA's only independent Senator, Fatima Payman, has uncovered more than $15,000 in expensive undeclared gifts to NDIA officials, paid for by one of its contractors.
Several expensive lunches, one for more than $500, are listed with drinks, golf outings and other gifts from Salesforce in documents ordered in Parliament by Senator Payman.
Salesforce supplies services to the NDIA including its customer relationship management system. Between 2020 and 2023, software contracts between Salesforce and the NDIA were varied multiple times, from $27 million in April 2020 to $135 million in October 2023.
"This period overlaps with when these lavish gifts were being handed out. We need to know whether there's a connection between the gifts and the contract variations," Senator Payman said.
"More than $9,000 in gifts went to one senior NDIA employee, who has since left the agency. Was this person involved in the contract negotiations or variations? The public deserves to know."
A later letter from the NDIA CEO (p. 30 of the attached PDF document) provides a total figure of $15,142.64 for all the gifts.
Senator Payman believes that a related referral has been made to the NACC.
"It's outrageous that this sort of behaviour is taking place in the Australian bureaucracy in 2025," Senator Payman said.
"The NDIA is supposed to be looking after our society's most vulnerable people, not living it up in restaurants and enjoying rounds of free golf."
"This clearly opens up questions of corruption, or at least the possibility of corruption," she said.
"If laws have been broken then we should crack down hard on these people, but if this is happening because of a loophole, then Parliament needs to close it."
The Australian Public Service Commission was reported to have begun a review of the guidelines for the disclosure of gifts and benefits at the start of this year.
Senator Payman is calling on the Prime Minister to advise Australian taxpayers on the status of this review, and what further action the government will take in the light of these revelations.
"I want to know what the government intends to do to crack down on the NDIA and stop the free lunches," Senator Payman said.
Senator Payman is
