Amidst recent turmoil in Defence, the Corporate General Manager of the Defence Materiel Organisation, Jane Wolfe, was sacked recently.

As an SES Band 3 (Deputy Secretary level), Wolfe’s dismissal is highly unusual.

The Department of Defence told Crikey “Wolfe’s employment was terminated under section 29 (3) (c) of the Public Service Act 1999”, which is “non-performance or unsatisfactory performance of duties.”

According to Defence sources, Wolfe was escorted from the premises on 16 March, although her dismissal is said to be due not to any improper or inappropriate behaviour of any kind, but through simply being not up to the job. A number of senior Defence staff had also refused to work with her or complained about her.

The dismissal reflects poorly on DMO head Stephen Gumley, who recruited Wolfe from the NSW Public Service in 2007, and who is said to be developing a track record as a poor judge of senior executives despite his strong reputation in other areas.

Wolfe was briefly farmed out to the Infrastructure Department at a cost, one tipster says, of $100,000 last year but did not last longer than a couple of months on her return to Defence.