The National Anti-Corruption Commission has launched the second Commonwealth Integrity Survey. Photo: David Murtagh.
Commonwealth public servants are being invited to formally, but anonymously, dish the dirt on any corruption issues they would like explored in their organisations.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has launched the latest Commonwealth Integrity Survey, calling on employees in the Australian Public Service and all federal government agencies to give it feedback on corruption risks, vulnerabilities and the integrity maturity in their places of work.
The survey was first run over August and September 2024, with employees from 171 of 191 identified agencies responding.
A total of 58,309 survey responses were collected in the inaugural survey, out of 278,406 invitees – a 21 per cent response rate.
That survey found government employees largely had faith in the integrity of their agency; almost all employees were confident they could identify corruption within their area of responsibility; and most were willing to report corruption but only if they had direct access to specific details themselves.
Most employees believed they knew or could readily find out how to report corruption either internally within their agencies or directly to the NACC.
Areas of concern were identified in the first survey, with nepotism and cronyism from various levels of agency leaderships being the most witnessed corrupt behaviours.
It was deemed so successful and informative that the survey is back and again open to all Commonwealth public sector staff members. It is planned to run every two years.
The survey is voluntary, with Commonwealth public sector agencies responsible for distributing the survey to their staff.
The NACC’s acting deputy commissioner Jamie Lowe stressed that the survey remained anonymous, with no personal or identifying information collected.
She encouraged all federally-employed public sector staff to take time out and have their say.
“The inaugural survey in 2024 gave the commission insights into our corruption risks and helped inform our corruption prevention and education work across the Commonwealth public sector,” she said.
“This survey is a further chance to tell us what is and isn’t working to help focus detection and prevention efforts where they are needed most.
“While anonymous and voluntary, every response helps build a stronger evidence base for integrity and corruption prevention.”
Agencies are distributing the surveys now, with staff having until 25 September to complete and submit them.
Following the survey, each Commonwealth agency will receive a de-identified report with their agency’s results, to help them identify areas to target their corruption prevention and integrity efforts.
The reports will also include findings of employees’ understanding of corruption, integrity culture and barriers to reporting.
Some of the results will also be comparable to the 2024 survey, to assist agencies with assessing the impact of corruption prevention initiatives over the past two years.
The NACC will also publish a publicly accessible report on the survey’s results.
The integrity survey’s aim is to collect “observations and perceptions” of integrity and corruption within the APS and from Commonwealth public sector employees.
It provides participating agencies and the NACC with a better understanding of the nature and extent of corruption across the sector.
The commission’s website says the survey supports agencies to assess risks by highlighting indicators that corruption may be occurring, and identifying areas to target corruption prevention and integrity efforts – including around employees’ understanding of corruption, integrity culture and barriers to reporting.
“The Commonwealth Integrity Survey helps us understand and measure observations and trends relating to integrity and corruption within agencies and across a diverse workforce,” it states.
“The commission and agencies can use survey data to identify potential areas of corruption risk and inform anti-corruption strategies and corruption prevention initiatives.
“This helps to better protect individuals and agencies from corruption.”
The NACC supports Commonwealth agencies to assess and improve their internal integrity frameworks.
Entities conduct their own integrity maturity self-assessments, using the Commonwealth Integrity Maturity Framework developed by the NACC.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
