Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw says his relationship with former NSW Police chief Mick Fuller, now partner at PwC, was not close.
Mr Kershaw fronted a spillover budget estimates on Friday after the AFP entered into a $794,000 contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Mr Kershaw had not declared a conflict of interest after it was found that he had met with Mr Fuller several times before the contract was awarded.
Despite Mr Kershaw commissioning a review, an AFP official told Senate estimates in May that Mr Kershaw was not involved in the procurement process.
The AFP subsequently engaged PwC on the contract without a public tender process. Additionally, it had been revealed that PwC held several separate contracts for internal auditing services with the AFP.
Text messages obtained by NSW Greens senator David Shoebridge have revealed conversations between Mr Kershaw and Mr Fuller were far more extensive than the AFP commissioner had previously suggested.
Appearing before the senate legal and constitutional affairs committee on Friday, Mr Kershaw sought to clarify his relationship with Mr Fuller.
“Mr Fuller and I do not have dinner at each other’s homes. We do not play golf together and I don’t know the personal details of his life,” Mr Kershaw said.
“I want to be clear about that because it is important that our professional relationship is not mischaracterised.
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“The bottom line is that Mr Fuller was the best person for the job, and in the AFP, we aim to hire the best people for the job.”
The AFP’s chief operating officer Paul Wood confirmed the law enforcement agency had terminated its separate contracts with PwC.
Telling estimates that a “clean break” was needed, Mr Wood said the AFP had ended all contracts with the firm effective from June 30.
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