Corruption Matters - December 2020 | Issue 56
In other news
In November 2020, the ICAC furnished a Special Report to the NSW Parliament dealing with the urgent need for a parliamentary solution to a funding model for the ICAC. It was the second such report expressing the need for an exercise of the Parliament’s role and authority in implementing a new funding model that ensures the ICAC is properly funded by a mechanism that is independent of Executive Government control.
The report, A parliamentary solution to a funding model for the ICAC, is intended to be read together with the matters concerning policy and administration affecting the ICAC as discussed in the first Special Report, The need for a new independent funding model for the ICAC, which was provided to the presiding officers of each House of Parliament in May 2020.
Section 75 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 provides that the ICAC may, at any time, make a special report to Parliament as to matters of policy and/or administration affecting the ICAC. It operates as a formal process for the ICAC, of its own motion, to communicate by reporting on a matter it has decided is sufficiently significant or important to it and/or to the performance of its statutory functions as to warrant Parliament’s attention.
In October 2020, the Auditor-General for NSW released a report examining the effectiveness of the financial arrangements and management practices of four integrity agencies: the ICAC, the NSW Electoral Commission, the NSW Ombudsman, and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
The audit, which was commissioned by the Special Minister of State, the Hon Don Harwin MLC, on 4 November 2019, found that “the current approach to determining and administering annual funding for the integrity agencies presents threats to their independent status”.
Updates of the response to these reports will be made available on the ICAC website.
Both reports are available on the ICAC website.
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