The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman has released a report into the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) timeliness when dealing with communications and complainants, and declarations of conflicts of interest and has found the Force wanting.
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, its latest review of how the AFP administers Part V of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 reveals the issue goes back some time.
“A number of our reviews over the past 10 years identified issues around timeliness benchmarks, communication with complainants and conflicts of interest declarations,” the Ombudsman’s Office said.
“Despite the AFP taking action to remedy these issues, there has not been substantive improvement in these areas and we identified the same issues during this review.”
It said that at each review it monitored and assessed the progress made by the AFP against previous findings.
It said that the time it took the AFP to complete Category One and Two complaints was consistently outside internal timeliness benchmarks.
“While we concluded that the AFP’s handling of Category Three complaints was adequate, comprehensive, and matters were investigated appropriately, we identified deficiencies in the management of conflicts of interest and how the AFP communicated with parties to complaints,” the Ombudsman’s Office said.
“Overall, our review indicated the AFP’s administration of Part V of the Act, which relates to how conduct issues are dealt with, is comprehensive and adequate in relation to Category Three and Four complaints.”
It said the AFP was considering methods to improve its administration of Category One and Two complaints which were to be monitored at future reviews.
The Ombudsman’s Office made four recommendations and 10 suggestions to assist the AFP to improve its management of complaints.
The Office’s latest 36-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
