NT Department Tightens NDIS Conflict Rules After Senior Official Ran Private Provider

A senior Northern Territory public servant responsible for child and family services in Central Australia spent nearly three years as the sole director of a private National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provider in Alice Springs, and for 15 months also owned a 50 per cent stake in the business's parent company. The Department of Children and Families has since strengthened its internal conflict of interest procedures, particularly for staff who can influence NDIS referrals.

The department plays a significant role in the NDIS system in the NT, with the most recent figures from 2024 showing more than 300 children in its care had active NDIS plans. An ABC investigation has confirmed public servant Kudzai Mutsunge ran the NDIS business Life Aspects while holding senior roles in the department, and held shares in the business's parent company, Japhin The Teacher Pty Ltd, from December 2024 to February 2026.

What did the public servant do?

Life Aspects is registered to provide a range of disability services, including assistance with independent living and support coordination, an area that involves arranging other providers for people with disability. The ABC has seen no evidence that any child in the care of the department was a Life Aspects client.

Ms Mutsunge wound up her directorship and shareholding in Life Aspects earlier this year, one week before an anonymous complaint was sent to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in March. A separate complaint went to the Department of Children and Families in August, from the Alice Springs-based Disability Advocacy Service (DAS).

On August 21, the department told the service it had referred the information through its internal integrity processes and was coordinating with the National Disability Insurance Agency where relevant. The outcome of that process, if any, is unknown. In response to questions from the ABC, the department declined to say whether Ms Mutsunge had declared a potential conflict of interest or sought approval for outside work, saying it could not comment on individual employment or conduct matters.

The ABC understands Ms Mutsunge quit the department on September 11. She said she did not endorse or agree to the allegations or characterisations put to her about whether her roles presented a potential conflict of interest, and said she could not respond to further questions within the timeframe provided.

What do the rules require?

Under the NT public service code of conduct, employees must declare any perceived, potential or actual conflicts of interest in writing to their chief executive. The department's acting chief executive Karen Broadfoot said it had zero tolerance for a failure to declare a conflict, and that where integrity matters involved the NDIS, the department would also coordinate with the Australian Federal Police when relevant.

The NDIA said it could not comment on ongoing investigations. DAS chief executive Scott Richardson said government officials needed to be held to a higher standard on potential NDIS conflicts, to ensure they don't have access to participant information that they could then benefit from, or family could benefit from.

In a meeting in March, Ms Mutsunge reportedly told DAS staff that she was operationally removed from placement decisions, and denied any role in referring children to NDIS providers.

How has the department responded?

As well as written declarations, the public service code of conduct in force since 2022 requires employees to get written approval from their chief executive before taking paid work outside the service. The department went further and endorsed its own conflict of interest policy on May 29, 2025, while Ms Mutsunge was still sole director of Life Aspects.

The policy required staff to consider their own interests and those of their family, identify any conflicts and report them. It made clear conflicts were common and not necessarily a problem, so long as they were declared and managed. Then on June 12, 2026, three months after Ms Mutsunge had offloaded Life Aspects, the department policy was updated.

The updated version created a tougher rule, being phased in, that all staff must complete an annual declaration covering any business or financial interests, including any jobs outside of the department, and submit paperwork saying nil if they have none. The updated policy also includes extra measures for higher risk staff, specifically identifying staff who could influence referrals to NDIS providers.

Mr Richardson said it was a real concern that the policy was tightened soon after his organisation raised the case with the department, and questioned if the new policy was a rushed reaction while investigations were still underway.

What was Ms Mutsunge's role?

Ms Mutsunge held senior roles in the department before she quit. In June 2024, a document published by the NT government said she was Director of Remote Families for the Central Australia region. By March this year, she was using an email signature that described her as Director, Youth and Family Support for the same region.

The NT's Public Guardian and Trustee, which acts for adults under guardianship orders, told the ABC two of the people it represents had been clients of Life Aspects in the past.

What happened to the business?

ASIC documents reveal that Life Aspects was restructured over four days in late February and early March this year. They show Ms Mutsunge set up two new companies and then signed away her directorships on the day each was registered. She also transferred her stake in the parent company back to Japhin Nyengera, the man who owned the other 50 per cent of its shares, and who recorded the same Alice Springs address as her in ASIC filings.

The Life Aspects companies then passed to Freejoy Murukayi, a New South Wales man whose LinkedIn profile describes him as an electrical technician working for mining giant BHP. He now holds the sole share in Life Aspects Investments, which owns Life Aspects, but ASIC documents show his shareholding is non-beneficial, meaning he holds the business for someone else.

ASIC filings previously listed the new parent company's registered address as occupied by The Trustee at the same address Ms Mutsunge had used for Life Aspects, but the beneficial owner can no longer be identified from public records. In March, Life Aspects listed a new place of business at an address on Todd Street, in the centre of Alice Springs. When the ABC attended in September, the premises carried signage for a different NDIS provider. A director of that company said they had never heard of Life Aspects.

Life Aspects and Mr Murukayi did not respond to questions. Internet domain records show Ms Mutsunge remains the registrant and technical contact for the Life Aspects website, using a private, non-government email address, at the time of publication. Life Aspects is still listed as an active provider.

What did Ms Mutsunge tell advocates?

On March 12, two disability advocates from DAS held a meeting with Ms Mutsunge to discuss the matter. In a complaint sent to the department in August, obtained by the ABC, they set out what they say she told them.

Ms Mutsunge confirmed she has not lodged a formal conflict of interest declaration regarding her interest in Life Aspects through any departmental system, DAS advocate Lachlan Imhof wrote. She stated that because she felt she did not do anything with the business and did not believe she personally benefited, she did not think disclosure was required. She said a verbal disclosure was made at some point to a former supervisor who has since left the department, which cannot currently be verified.

According to Mr Imhof, Ms Mutsunge said her husband was heavily involved in the operation of the business and that it had been sold via Facebook in August last year. But company records show Ms Mutsunge remained the sole director of Life Aspects until March 2026 and held her beneficial shares in the parent company until late February. According to Mr Imhof, she told the advocates that selecting providers and signing agreements sat with case managers and foster parents, not with her.

What are the broader concerns?

NT Public Guardian and Trustee Beth Walker said her office had no capability to check whether the directors or owners of NDIS providers were employed by government agencies, and that privacy legislation prevented other departments from releasing that information. The ABC is continuing to examine cases of Northern Territory public servants holding interests in NDIS providers.

The case raises questions about oversight of the NDIS in the Northern Territory and whether existing safeguards are sufficient to prevent conflicts of interest among public servants who work with vulnerable people. The department's tightened rules, while welcome, come after the fact, and the full extent of the issue may not yet be known.