The Western Australia Auditor General has conducted an audit of the Department of Justice’s Corrective Services to examine the agency’s staff rostering services to determine if its management is efficient and safe.
In her report Staff Rostering in Corrective Services, the Auditor General Caroline Spencer says it isn’t.
“We found that current arrangements do not achieve either, predominantly because Corrective Services are operating in a chaotic administrative environment lacking essential controls and information,” Ms Spencer said.
She said her audit found a range of serious deficiencies in systems, processes, controls and culture that led to a lack of effective oversight and accountability.
“Consequently, overtime costs are high, officers are being paid for hours they have not worked and absenteeism is a persistent problem,” Ms Spencer said.
“Furthermore, safety provisions in the industrial agreement are not being met, potentially putting prison officers’ safety at risk.”
She said the widespread acceptance of non-compliance with processes and the inability or unwillingness of management and officers to challenge poor practices, “leave Corrective Services wide open to rorting and fraud”.
“There is a level of movement in the rosters that is unseen in modern workplaces, with prison officers regularly swapping shifts and taking unscheduled leave – with some rosters having fewer than 16% of shifts filled as scheduled.
“While some flexibility in rostering will always be required, changes must be managed with good systems, processes, accountability and rigorous oversight. Corrective Services lacks all four,” she said.
Ms Spencer said her report presented what she believed to be a deeply disturbing picture but much of what she reported was not new.
“A range of reports and reviews over many years, including financial audit findings by my Office, have raised similar issues,” Ms Spencer said, “But the Department of Justice has made little progress in addressing them”.
“This cannot continue.”
The Auditor General made two recommendations that the Department set up appropriate rostering management practices in Corrective Services and that it implement contemporary and integrated human resource controls. The Department agreed to both recommendations.
Ms Spencer’s 29-page report can be accessed at this PS News link and the audit team was Jason Beeley, Rowena Davis, Holly Ord, Nicholas Chin and Wendi Zeng.
