Risk factors for corruption are influenced by an employee’s role, their responsibilities, and their level of interaction with members of the public and detainees.
Below are some of the main activities or functions vulnerable to corruption (or perceptions of it) within the public sector, based on trends and themes in complaints received by the CCC. Note: This is not an exhaustive list of all activities or work functions which may be vulnerable to fraud and corruption.
| Function or activity | Vulnerabilities |
| Service delivery | Delivery of services to members of the public, such as clients, customers and patients. |
Information control and management | Non-compliance with policies and procedures and misuse of confidential information. |
Custodial duties | Conduct which occurred during custodial duties or responsibility for a detainee or prisoner in a custodial or detention facility, such as assault or excessive use or force or inappropriately exercising discretion or powers. |
Recruitment, selection and promotion processes | Not following processes, and inadequate employee screening to verify candidate suitability. This includes not declaring relationships or associations during recruitment and selection processes. |
Payroll | Payroll processes, employees claiming allowances and entitlements they’re not entitled to or misusing work time. |
Supervision and employee relations | Conduct occurring during supervision or management, such as a staff member raising an allegation about their manager, or conduct relating to relations between employees. |
Compliance with employment obligations | Not complying with employment obligations, such as not declaring or managing a conflict of interest, not declaring secondary employment, or not declaring a gift received. |
Management of public assets and resources | Accounts processing, building management, procurement, sourcing and tendering, contract management, fleet management and grants administration. |
Public sector employees undertake a range of duties and have differing levels of decision-making authority, access to sensitive information and interaction with members of the public depending on their role and the agency they are employed by.
Key risk areas for public sector employees include:
Direct client / customer contact: Including being rude or aggressive towards members of the public or offenders in custodial settings (including youth detention), mistreatment of vulnerable people, such as in hospitals or care facilities, or providing false or misleading information while providing a service.
Information control and management: Including 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.
Human resource management: This includes poorly managed conflicts of interest or interference in employment decisions (such as the recruitment, promotion or termination of employees); misuse of allowances or entitlements; and matters relating to conduct or discipline, including interfering with or undermining investigations by providing false information, statements or complaints.
Management of public assets and resources: Including all aspects of procurement, such as sourcing and tenders and contract management; asset and financial management, such as overseeing financial transactions and assets, acquiring goods or services; and capital works and the construction of public infrastructure.
Custodial duties: Including conduct which occurred during custodial duties or responsibility for a detainee or prisoner in a custodial or detention facility (such as correctional and youth detention centres).
Compliance with employment obligations: This can include not accurately representing leave taken; not returning from leave on time; not reporting conflicts of interest; or not adhering to health and safety obligations.
Supervision and employee relations: Such as leadership roles treating staff unfairly through excessive or unreported performance management; not adhering to approved employment policies; or making inappropriate comments to staff.
Unprofessional personal conduct: Including unprofessional conduct towards a member of the public or a colleague (e.g. rudeness, verbal abuse, mistreatment); inappropriate sexual relationships and physical contact; reporting for duty while under the influence of alcohol or drugs; unauthorised absence from duty; being named as a respondent on a domestic violence order (or breaching the provisions of such an order); or any other personal conduct contravening a code of conduct.
Misuse of authority: Acting beyond their delegations or directing public servants to take a course of action, including allegations about political interference in the recruitment of public sector employees, including senior executives and board members.
Improper influence: Arising from members of the public or industry groups building trust and creating undue loyalty to influence decisions, often subtly and over extended timeframes, and can include lobbying elected officials, making political donations, or through coercive activity from foreign actors to gain improper advantage. Corruption occurs when being improperly influenced leads to biased decision-making that benefits the manipulator rather than the public interest.
Bribery, gifts or secret commissions for the explicit purpose of receiving preferential treatment. Gifts, favours or bribes can result in a perceived expectation for preferential treatment, decisions, or access.
Misuse of confidential information: Including sharing sensitive government information without authorisation or using sensitive information their own or another person’s benefit. Corruption occurs when unauthorised disclosures are used to benefit individuals, organisations, or foreign actors that compromises government integrity.
Conflicts of interest: Such as undeclared or poorly managed conflicts and personal interests impacting impartial decision-making.
- Demand pressures: Growth in Queensland’s population, combined with an ageing population, social housing shortages and changes to law and justice priorities, has increased demand on public sector services, including health and education, infrastructure development, and put pressure on correctional and youth justice facilities.
- Economic pressures: These can be a contributing factor to fraud, as employees seek to supplement their primary income or deal with costs of living expenses. Financial challenges can increase risks associated with theft, fraud and growing numbers of public sector employees taking on secondary and poly employment, increasing the risk of undeclared conflicts of interest; misuse of public funding and assets; and misuse of confidential information.
- Labour market dynamics: Declining levels of job commitment, changing employee attitudes and expectations, including shorter job tenure and higher rates of employee turnover, puts pressure on the public sector to fill vacancies. Challenges in recruiting into specialised professions, such as health, manufacturing, construction, and professional, scientific and technical services, may lead to agencies overlooking pre-employment red flags to secure skilled or experienced workers.
- Major projects and events: Queensland is entering a period of increased investment in property and infrastructure development driven by population growth, economic diversification and major sporting events. Increased procurement, tendering and contract management activities, along with increased partnership with the private sector and large-scale recruitment to support the delivery of these initiatives, exposes risks associated with nepotism, favouritism, improper influence and the misuse of public funds.
Our experience suggests that corruption risks in the public sector can increase due to:
- Inadequate or absent conflict of interest management practices, including robust processes for declaring and documenting conflicts of interest, and the development and oversight of appropriate management strategies.
- Poor organisational risk awareness about the importance of recordkeeping and safeguarding confidential information, and systems and processes which do not promote appropriate information control, restrict access or detect the unauthorised access and release of information.
- Weak employee screening practices, such as important background and probity checks not being conducted or overlooked.
- Excessive discretionary authority or concentration of decision-making, particularly where these are not supported by appropriate oversight, segregation of duties or other controls.
- Unclear or missing policies, procedures, governance frameworks and training, particularly on high-risk activities such as recruitment and selection, procurement, asset management, and conflicts of interest.
- Poor recordkeeping and information management practices, limiting transparency, accountability and ability to detect, investigate, respond and prevent corrupt conduct.
- Inadequate supervision of employees, limiting the early detection and resolution of corrupt behaviours and enabling the misuse of work time and public resources, fraud and theft.
- The absence of accessible, effective and trusted internal reporting mechanisms and support processes, reducing confidence in reporting wrongdoing and hindering the timely identification and management of corruption risks.
