The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) has announced that it received 736 notifications of serious misconduct relating to 45 Government Agencies in the fourth quarter of 2020-21.
It said that from these notifications, 1,760 allegations were identified,
In a statement, the CCC said just over two fifths (723) of these allegations came from members of the public, while notifications by public sector authorities accounted for just over half (981) of the overall allegations.
“The Public Sector Commission’s notifications and the Commission’s own propositions represented the remainder,” the Commission said.
“The amount of allegations we received continues to trend upwards despite complaint numbers remaining stable.”
The CCC said some of the likely contributing factors to this increase included continued development of its assessment processes; increased ability to identify integrity risks by public sector authorities and the WA Police Force; and an enhanced understanding of the public and public sector authorities about what represented serious misconduct.
It said continued focus of the Public Sector Commission and other Government oversight bodies on misconduct risks was also a factor.
The CCC said that just under two-thirds of all allegations of police misconduct related to notifications sent in by the WA Police Force.
“The top three allegation categories relating to the WA Police Force (unprofessional conduct, breach of procedure or policy, and neglect of duty) are generally the same for each quarter,” the CCC said.
“For the public Sector, excluding the WA Police Force, the top three allegation categories (benefit/detriment, out of jurisdiction, fraud/falsification) account for around two-thirds of all allegations received for the wider public sector.”
The CCC said allegations relating to public officers corruptly using their positions for benefit or detriment featured consistently across the sector and generally accounted for around one quarter of allegation categories.
It said that out of jurisdiction could include those where the relevant public sector authority was within the Commission’s jurisdiction, but the person involved was either not a public officer, or engaging in conduct that did not meet the definition of serious misconduct.
Finally, fraud and falsification allegations included matters where employees allegedly falsified timesheets, medical certificates, leave and travel claims and fraudulently used corporate purchasing cards.
The Commission’s seven-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.