The CSIRO has sacked one of its senior executives over an alleged fraud involving an official credit card.
The allegation against the organisation's general manager for business and infrastructure services, Mark Wallis, has been referred to federal police, the Financial Review reported on Tuesday.
Mr Wallis was the executive in charge of one of the federal government's biggest land deals, the sale of CSIRO's 701-hectare field station sits on the ACT-New South Wales border to be developed for hundreds of houses.
The proceeds of the massive deal are to bolster the cash-strapped organisation's research efforts.
Mr Wallis joined the CSIRO in 2011 after working as a property manager for the AFP.
In a statement released on Tuesday, CSIRO spokesman Huw Morgan confirmed that Mr Wallis was no longer employed by the organisation and there had been a breach of the CSIRO code-of-conduct in relation to "expenditure".
"The CSIRO Code of Conduct is there to ensure the appropriate standards of behaviour are upheld and that the trust placed in our employees by the CSIRO, as a Commonwealth Government organisation, is respected," Mr Morgan said.
"We take potential breaches of the CSIRO Code of Conduct seriously.
"Recently, we have identified such a breach relating to expenditure.
"The individual is no longer employed by CSIRO.
"It is not appropriate for us to comment further."
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