Date published 09 August 2019
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Last modified 24 October 2022
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Last reviewed 24 October 2022

This charter sets out the standards of service you can expect if you lodge a complaint with us about corruption in the public sector. It also details what recourse you have if you do not receive this service. 

Our goal

It is our goal to ensure that our complaints-handling system:

  • accords with legislative requirements and best practice
  • is timely, efficient, effective, fair and accessible
  • recognises your right to complain about possible corruption and to have your complaint appropriately handled
  • is responsive, and maintains public confidence in the CCC
  • makes public sector agencies accountable for the way they deal with complaints of corruption.

Our commitment to you

If you lodge a complaint with us, we will:

  • treat you with courtesy and respect
  • respond in a timely, efficient manner
  • act fairly and ethically
  • respect your right to confidentiality and privacy
  • let you know if another agency would be best placed to deal with your concerns
  • explain our decisions to you and what you can do if you do not agree with them.

How we deal with complaints

In assessing your complaint, we will determine whether it is within the CCC’s jurisdiction and decide whether it is in the public interest for us to deal directly with your concerns. In performing its corruption function, the CCC must focus on more serious cases of corrupt conduct and cases of systemic corrupt conduct within an agency.   

If the CCC determines not to deal with your concerns, we may refer your complaint to the agency you are complaining about and ask them to deal with it. We do this because all government agencies are required to take responsibility and be held accountable for the performance and behaviour of their own staff. We believe that this is the best way to maintain a strong culture of integrity and reduce opportunities for corruption.
  
We may review or audit the handling of some complaints we refer to another agency. 

The CCC may take no further action about your complaint if, for example, the complaint is outside the CCC’s jurisdiction, it lacks credibility or substance, or it has previously been dealt with by the CCC or another agency.  

If we investigate your complaint

When we investigate a matter, we do not determine guilt, nor do we discipline anyone. Only a court can decide if someone is guilty or not guilty of a criminal offence, and only a CEO of a public sector agency, or a tribunal, has the power to impose a disciplinary sanction on a public sector officer.  

Therefore, if we investigate your complaint, we collect and assess the evidence and, if this is considered sufficient, send a report to:  

  • a prosecuting body to consider any prosecution action warranted, and/or 
  • the agency involved so it can consider any disciplinary charges warranted and/or modify its processes to avoid repetition of the problem. 

If we refer your complaint to another agency

As the agency you are complaining about is usually best placed to deal with your complaint, in most cases we will refer the matter to them to deal with. If we decide that referral is the most appropriate option, we will let you know which agency is handling your complaint.   

That agency will:

  • decide how to deal with your complaint
  • tell you what they have decided
  • let you know the outcome.

We may have to give the agency your name with the details of your complaint. If you do not wish to be identified, the CCC may be limited in how it can deal with your anonymous complaint.
  
We can advise you of the options available to you should you wish for your details to remain anonymous. 

Unhappy with our service?

We want to provide you with an excellent service, so your views are very important to us. 

If you are unhappy with the service provided to you by the CCC (e.g. timeliness, manner of communication), you may submit your concerns to the CCC for attention and response. More information, including how to make a complaint, can be found on the CCC’s compliments and complaints page

Unhappy with our assessment decision?

If you are unhappy with our assessment decision, you may submit a written request for a review to the Executive Director of Integrity Services, Crime and Corruption Commission, within 14 days of when you were notified of the decision. Requests for a review of an assessment decision can be sent to [email protected], or to GPO Box 3123, Brisbane Qld 4001.   

The review will be conducted by a CCC staff member who is of equal level, or senior to the officer who made the original decision and was not involved in making the original decision. Only one review is allowed.   

Please note that this is a review of how we assessed your complaint, not of the outcome of an investigation conducted by the CCC or another agency.   

Before we will undertake a review, you must provide us with a concise summary of the reasons why you believe our assessment of your complaint is incorrect. If you have records that are relevant to your complaint that you have not previously provided to us, you can forward copies to us and ask for them to be considered as part of our review. 

Still unhappy with our service or assessment decision?

If you make a complaint or seek a review and remain dissatisfied with how your complaint or review has been handled, you may be able to raise your concerns with the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee (PCCC), at Parliament House, George Street, Brisbane 4000. Please note however, that the PCCC is not an appeal body for our decisions and does not carry out original investigations into allegations of corrupt conduct or police misconduct.   

We will monitor and review our service performance, report regularly to the PCCC, and will review this charter every three years. 

A warning about false complaints

Anyone who makes a complaint or provides information to the CCC knowing it to be untrue may be prosecuted under the Crime and Corruption Act 2001. Such complaints are treated seriously because they waste public resources and unfairly damage reputations.

Review trigger 

This charter of service was reviewed and updated in November 2021.  

Download our charter of service.

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