Two colluders at the top of a $700 million industry super fund have been brought down in a corporate expenses scandal.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Health Industry Plan (HIP) were removed after a whistleblower’s tip-off led to an APRA investigation.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority found that chairman Anthony Wallace and CEO Ross Bernays had been racking up inappropriate expenses on their personal credit cards and having them reimbursed by HIP.

The chairman and CEO had the authority to approve each other’s expense reimbursement.

The actual dollar amounts are not known, though indications from remaining board members suggest they were in the hundreds of thousands.

Reports in the Australian Financial Review say the dodgy deeds were called-out after years of tension at the top levels of HIP.

Friction between the big fund’s directors and union representative had been ongoing.

The union members were particularly critical of the executives’ need to entertain guests in a corporate box at ANZ Stadium, as well as their tendency to hold strategic planning conferences in tropical locations including Port Douglas.

The APRA findings saw Mr Wallace and Mr Bernays booted from the board, replaced by new chairman Bob Whybird.

Two other directors left as well, leaving just three people in charge of the $700 million fund and its 24,000 members.

Despite that number being too low to form a quorum for decision-making, as defined by superannuation law, HIP was allowed to legally continue.

The continuation was granted because the expense scandal came along just weeks before a planned merger with the $2.3 billion Prime Super fund and its 150,000 members.

Since the merger, the joint funds’ executive boards are populated by people not involved with HIP, except Mr Whybird who remains as its representative.

The scandal is being taken as a lesson in the need for close checks of corporate expenses, and an argument for more frequent turnover of directors to ensure such behaviour does not become entrenched.