The CCC is Queensland’s anti-corruption body. We deal with corruption that affects the state’s public sector by:

• Receiving and assessing complaints
• Investigating serious and systemic corruption
• Monitoring how agencies deal with the matters we refer to them, or working with them to carry out joint investigations, and
• Providing guidance on corruption risks and preventing corruption, including through our audits.  

Our corruption jurisdiction is broad and diverse, including state government departments, the Queensland Police Service (QPS), local governments, government-owned corporations, universities, prisons, courts, tribunals and elected officials. 

The CCC investigates only the most serious or systemic corruption allegations itself, and refers other allegations to relevant public sector agencies to deal with. The CCC oversees some of these referred allegations.  

What is corruption?

Corruption is defined by Transparency International as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.

Common examples of the type of public sector corruption that the CCC deals with include fraud and theft, excessive use of force/assault, extortion, unauthorised access to confidential information, and favouritism.

In Queensland, “corruption” is defined in the CCC’s legislation, the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (CC Act). It is made up of “corrupt conduct” (defined in section 15) and “police misconduct” (defined in Schedule 2).

You do not need to know all of these terms or their definitions to report suspected corruption to us, but they are the terms we use to assess any complaint or report of corruption that we receive to determine whether it is within our jurisdiction – that is, whether we have authority to deal with it.