Levy appointed CMC acting chair The man pushed from government office by the former Labor government has been hired to head the state's crime and corruption watchdog. Ken Levy, former director-general of the Department of Justice under the Beattie government, has been appointed acting chairman of the Crime and Misconduct Commission by the Newman government. Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said Dr Levy would lead the organisation through six months of change. Dr Levy was forced to step down as Department of Justice director-general in 2003 after Pauline Hanson's conviction for electoral fraud was quashed and the Director of Public Prosecutions heavily criticised. He was planning to leave the job at the time, but agreed to depart one month early. Dr Levy will be the commission's third acting chairman in the past month. Former CMC chairman Ross Martin SC resigned in March after highly-sensitive classified files related to the Fitzgerald Inquiry were inadvertently made public. At the time, he revealed he had Cystic Fibrosis and needed a lung transplant. Mr Martin was replaced by Warren Strange, who stepped down earlier this month to take up a position with the Legal Advisory Service. Mr Strange's replacement, Philip Nase, spent less than two weeks in the role. The CMC has been dogged by controversy since investigating complaints about Premier Campbell Newman during the 2012 election campaign, and later declassifying the Fitzgerald documents. The complaints against Premier Newman were found to be baseless, but he claimed the commission had allowed itself to be used by those with an axe to grind and ordered the organisation be reviewed by former High Court judge Ian Callinan. In his final report Mr Callinan described the CMC as being bogged down with bureaucracy. He recommended keeping allegations made to the CMC secret, prosecuting people who make malicious claims and culling the government's ethical standards units. "It is critical that the state has an independent statutory body to oversee crime and misconduct and the Newman government is committed to ensuring it maintains this role," Mr Bleijie said. We want to make sure this body is able to operate efficiently while maintaining the highest level of integrity, by being open and accountable itself.