Corruption Matters - November 2018 | Issue 52
In other news
One of the goals of the ICAC is to educate public sector agencies, public officials and members of the public about corruption and how to report it. Research projects, training workshops, rural outreach visits and other engagements are undertaken by ICAC staff throughout the year to achieve this goal.
National Investigations Symposium
Over 570 people attended the 12th National Investigations Symposium (NIS), held over three days in November 2018 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.
The biennial event is an opportunity for investigators, internal auditors, lawyers, public sector managers, police officers and complaint-handlers, from all tiers of the public sector, to increase their investigative knowledge and skills. The NIS is also an ideal networking opportunity for delegates to foster new contacts and maintain existing ones.
Five optional workshops were held on 13 November on electronic evidence gathering, open source intelligence and forensic accounting, investigating serious incidents in the disability sector, building institutional integrity, and investigative training for administrative watchdogs by international guest presenter Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé.
The two symposium days held on 14 and 15 November were arranged across four concurrent streams on topics such as forensics and technology, challenging investigations, complaint-handling, investigations involving vulnerable people and whistleblowing.
Alastair MacGibbon, Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, opened the symposium with a keynote address on emerging online threats. Emeritus Professor Geoff Gallop AC, Director, Graduate School of Government, University of Sydney, delivered the second keynote address on the fourth arm of government.
The NIS is a joint initiative of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, the NSW Ombudsman and the Institute of Public Administration Australia NSW.
The next symposium will be held in 2020.
Opening plenary at the 12th National Investigations Symposium
Illawarra Outreach
The ICAC held a Rural and Regional Outreach visit to the Illawarra Region, south of Sydney, from 26 to 30 November. The visit included a series of workshops for public officials with responsibilities for functions including management, planning, procurement and contract management, aimed at raising awareness of corruption risks while providing tools and strategies to deal with such risks. Visits to agencies and schools were also held, along with a community leaders’ forum. Around 170 individuals attended the outreach activities.
Are direct negotiations corrupt?
Winning a directly-negotiated contract with a government agency can be lucrative. Private sector organisations have a strong incentive to engage in a variety of tactics and techniques, which may or may not be ethical, in order to secure these benefits. Indeed, many of the investigations undertaken by the ICAC involve attempts to avoid competition.
The corruption risks associated with direct negotiations are significantly higher than those associated with open processes such as tendering and other forms of market testing. However, direct negotiations are not, by themselves, corrupt.
An updated version of the popular Direct negotiations: guidelines for managing risks is available from the ICAC website.
Strategic responses to corruption
For several years, the ICAC has successfully partnered with the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) to provide an executive short course titled “Strategic responses to corruption”. The course, delivered over four days by ICAC corruption prevention officers, targets senior public officials in a position to make significant change to how their organisation operates.
In 2018, the workshop was held between 11 and 14 September, with 25 participants (including 15 scholarship recipients) from a range of metropolitan and regional areas, and from both local government and state government departments.
Gary Sturgess was a guest speaker. Mr Sturgess is the NSW premier's ANZSOG chair of Public Service Delivery at the University of NSW. In the early 1990s, he was the director-general of the Cabinet Office under the Greiner government, and among other initiatives, was the architect of the ICAC. He provided participants with great insights into how and why the ICAC was designed.
The course was very well received, with the program rating 4.5/5 overall.
ICAC officers Dr Benjamin Marx and Adam Shapiro lead the ICAC/ANZSOG course.