The Crime and Misconduct Commission has completed its assessment of a series of concerns regarding the Redcliffe Hospital Foundation’s management of the Moreton Bay Integrated Care Clinic project and will not investigate the matter.
The concerns relate to the Foundation’s management of the project and its compliance with financial and statutory requirements.
In assessing the matter, the CMC liaised with Queensland Health and the Queensland Audit Office (QAO) as well as reviewing the Auditor-General’s relevant report to State Parliament regarding the auditor’s opinion of the Foundation.
CMC Assistant Commissioner, Misconduct, Warren Strange said the CMC had concluded that the concerns raised about the Foundation’s actions did not involve allegations, or evidence, that any non-compliance with required procedures was motivated by improper purposes or criminal conduct.
‘Additionally, the QAO has not referred any allegations of official misconduct to the CMC,’ Mr Strange said.
‘We are also aware that the QAO has more recently undertaken another audit and we would expect that if any matters involving possible official misconduct are identified this would be promptly reported to us.
‘Given that the Foundation has been asked to take a number of immediate steps to address the concerns that have been raised the CMC believes it is appropriate for the Foundation to continue to deal with those matters subject to our monitoring and the ongoing audit program of the QAO.’
The Foundation must provide the CMC with an interim report by the end of October detailing what action they have taken to address the issues identified in the QAO’s report and those raised by the Minister for Health.
The CMC has also offered to assist the Foundation to improve its understanding of compliance issues to reduce the likelihood of similar concerns arising in the future.
The CMC will also consider whether a more broadly targeted prevention strategy, extending to other hospital foundations, would help this sector appropriately deal with compliance issues.
