The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has denied that its chief executive officer misled the parliament over its whistleblower case.

CBA chief executive officer Matt Comyn was questioned at the bank’s annual meeting on Wednesday about the years-long issue with whistleblower Tim Cradock, who is suing the bank for failing to protect him as a whistleblower and even dismissing him in 2013.

A spokesperson for CBA insisted that Comyn did not mislead the parliament regarding the issue, adding that the CEO’s answer referred to allegations raised by Cradock in 2017, when he was granted whistleblower status.

“Matt Comyn’s response was that Tim Cradock’s redundancy occurred a significant period of time before he raised his allegations as a whistleblower. This is correct,” the spokesperson told The Guardian.

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Cradock claimed in February 2013 that he was being bullied by his manager while other employees were using two scams to fatten their bonuses. The bank’s HR department dismissed his bullying claim on March 27, 2013 then dismissed him on April 03.

“He was not considered a whistleblower at the time, nor did he describe himself as one,” the spokesperson explained – pointing out that the bank only considered him as a whistleblower in 2017 then hired law firm Minter Ellison to investigate the claims.

“His HR complaint was investigated and found to be unsubstantiated before his employment was terminated due to a redundancy arising from a restructuring. Both the restructuring and the redundancy were unrelated to his complaint,” the spokesperson concluded.