New Chief Municipal Inspector appointed

Michael Stefanovic AM has been appointed as the new Chief Municipal Inspector (CMI) and head of the Local Government Inspectorate.       

Mr Stefanovic will protect the integrity of local governments by monitoring and investigating complaints about council operations, elections and other breaches and offences of the Local Government Act 2020.     

Mr Stefanovic has 35 years of experience undertaking complex investigations in high-risk environments both within Australia and abroad.      

An expert in his field, having led teams specialising in fraud, corruption and misconduct investigations with the World Bank in Washington DC, he also served as the Director of the Investigations Division at the United Nations in New York.

Since November 2020, he has been the Director for Compliance Operations with COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria. Prior to this, Mr Stefanovic was the Director of Investigations for the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.       

His experience extends to post-conflict environments, having served as a United Nations war crimes investigator in The Hague, Chief Resident Investigator in UN peacekeeping missions and a member of specialist teams engaged by the US State Department to investigate crimes against humanity in Myanmar (2018) and Darfur (2004).  

Mr Stefanovic will take over from Acting Chief Municipal Inspector Dr John Lynch, who served in the role after the previous CMI David Wolf’s departure in January 2020.

Dr Lynch said: “I want to congratulate Michael on his appointment and I have every confidence he will build on the Inspectorate’s work of encouraging transparency and accountability across the sector.

“In my acting role, I was able to witness the important work done by the Inspectorate in holding councils to account and most recently, their ability to manage a large volume of complaints during the 2020 local council elections.”

Media enquiries

For media enquiries, contact Steve Pogonowski, Senior Communications Adviser:

email: media.comms@lgi.vic.gov.au

phone: 0437 541 972