Every year on December 9, for the past two decades, government entities, private organisations, and communities worldwide unite under the banner of the United Nations (UN) International Anti-Corruption Day. This year’s 20th anniversary theme is uniting the world against corruption.
Awareness campaign weeks and days symbolise our unity against corruption and provide a platform to talk about what integrity means for Queensland’s public sector.
What can Queensland's public sector do to support this united front against corruption?
Corruption fundamentally involves actions taken to gain personal benefits from positions of entrusted power. Addressing this issue requires a collaborative effort, as no single agency can single-handedly prevent or combat every instance of abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. Queensland's Crime and Corruption Act (2001) recognises that reducing corruption, promoting integrity, and maintaining high employee standards are the shared responsibility of all public sector agencies.
Throughout its three-decade history, the Crime and Corruption Commission has identified common corruption risks that can undermine trust in Queensland's public sector. This International Anti-Corruption Day, we challenge the public sector to stand with us against corruption by taking action against the risks that can damage the integrity of our public sector.
What is the Crime and Corruption Division doing to unite Queensland against corruption?
The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) is undergoing significant transformation, enhancing its digital and insights capabilities, implementing major reforms in response to the CCC Commission of Inquiry, and adopting a new Strategic Plan focused on data and insights in combating crime and preventing corruption.
Our Corruption Division aims to foster collective resilience against corrupt practices. The CCC's primary focus remains investigating serious and systemic corruption cases while empowering the public sector to address corrupt conduct effectively. Over the next two years, the CCC will collaborate with public sector agencies to assess corruption risks across Queensland. This will enable tailored responses to unique risk profiles and proactive measures to prevent corruption.
This International Anti-Corruption Day, commit to a united front against corruption in Queensland's public sector.
What are the key corruption risks to Queensland's public sector?
Each of the risks described below poses a persistent threat to the integrity of our public sector, and can undermine public trust in our public institutions.
Failure of duty allegations can involve failures to comply with legal, policy or reporting obligations or failures to execute duties to an appropriate standard.
An individual failure of duty allegation may not of itself be a significant concern but when aggregated the allegations may indicate broader organisational capacity deficits and/or cultural issues. Failure to implement adequate prevention measures and internal controls creates an environment that may allow an employee to engage in corruption.
An example of failure of duty is failure to declare gifts and benefits. In the five-year period from 2017 to 2021, there was a 29% increase in allegations relating to the Failure of duty, non-compliance with employment obligations corruption category that includes the non-declaration of gifts and benefits. Visit this page to learn how you can reduce risks associated with gifts this festive season.
Misuse of authority occurs when individuals exploit their position for personal gain or to benefit a select few, disregarding their duty to the public. Misuse of authority erodes public confidence in the decisions being made on their behalf by public sector employees and elected officials.
Abuse of authority, including allegations of nepotism and favouritism in recruitment and procurement, represent the highest proportion of matters investigated by the CCC, comprising approximately 56% of the investigations finalised in 2022-23 and 61% of the CCC’s current investigations. Transparent, merit-based selection is a cornerstone of public sector recruitment and perceptions of favouritism and nepotism can be highly damaging to organisational culture. Likewise, transparency and probity are an integral part of effective procurement practices – they help to safeguard public funds and ensure that value for money is achieved.
The CCC recommends that public sector agencies:
- ensure systems and processes are in place to correctly identify, declare and manage conflicts of interest,
- ensure proper documentation of decision-making in relation to appointment and reclassification processes,
- improve policies and procedures in relation to gifts and benefits and appropriate use of departmental vehicles.
Members of the public expect that their private information is not being accessed by, or disclosed to anyone who does not have a legitimate reason to use it.
Misuse of information may amount to corrupt conduct or a criminal offence. Reckless or negligent conduct may result in dismissal, criminal prosecution, or civil legal action against the individual and organisation involved.
Allegations can involve:
- accessing or disclosing official information without a legitimate reason,
- unintentionally disclosing official information,
- falsifying information or records,
- acquiring or retaining information or records illegally, or
- inadequately safeguarding information.
Unauthorised access to confidential information by public officers is a significant and longstanding issue and is one of the most common types of allegations and investigations that the CCC deals with. Improperly accessed information often includes tendering and recruitment information, personal health data, criminal histories, and custody information.
Through a 2021 survey of local government employees, 47% of respondents said there was an opportunity for the misuse of confidential information to occur. While 13% had witnessed it occurring. In 2021-22 financial year, more than 1200 allegations about the misuse of confidential information were made, mostly regarding unauthorised access and disclosure of information. According to the CCC's corruption allegations data, a large portion were also related to falsifying information.
Fraud is deceitful practice intended to result in financial or personal gain. Misappropriation or the exploitation of public sector resources has the potential to adversely impact all Queenslanders. When property or funds are diverted to a use that is not relevant to the performance of an agency’s functions, this comes at a cost as other critical goods and services are not able to be supported by the agency.
Of the total complaints received by the CCC in 2021-22, approximately 7% of complaints related to the exploitation of public sector resources, which is a decrease of 2% in relation to this area of focus from the previous year.
The cost of fraud goes beyond the actual money stollen. There is the added cost in multiple agencies carrying out follow-up investigations and recovery action, and in damage to public confidence in financial management across the public sector.
Every agency should have a comprehensive fraud control policy linked to detailed policies and procedures for managing procurement, finances, assets, and consumable goods. This policy should be based on a comprehensive risk management system that accounts for the key risk areas which are:
- Falsifying or manipulating documents to dishonestly obtain payments (such as by colluding to submit false or inflated invoices or providing false documents in support of grant fund applications).
- Using a government credit card for personal advantage.
- Recruitment fraud to obtain career advancement by claiming false skill sets or creating false qualifications.
- Claiming time not actually worked to gain accrued time in lieu.
- Obtaining false authorities such as licences or identification documents.
- Deliberately over-ordering resources with the intention of misusing the surplus goods or to gain other benefits such as loyalty points or tangible rewards.
- Splitting orders to circumvent policy or evade scrutiny and probity standards.
- Failing to return property when ceasing employment.
- Manipulating weak or inadequate security procedures for personal benefit.
