Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
Question from the Green Paper
Department of Transport and Main Roads Response
Queensland has an extensive
The former Department of Transport and the former Department of Main
range of codes of conduct in
Roads possessed Codes of Conduct. The former Codes have been
place – are any key individuals or
rewritten and refreshed. An integrated Code of Conduct has been
groups missed?
developed and is scheduled for release and use by all officers of the
Department of Transport and Main Roads.
The department is unaware of any individuals or groups missed by a Code
of Conduct
Should the codes be
The relevance and prominence of any Code of Conduct (“the Code”) must
strengthened in any way? If so,
be paramount as the Code provides guidance about expected behaviours in
how should they be
the workplace.
strengthened?
Recommendation
–
The
Public
Service
Commission
require
departments to certify that appropriate mechanisms exist to ensure
that all staff are educated and periodically reminded about the Code.
Codes of Conduct are required by the Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (“the
Act”) and are based upon the five (5) ethics principles. Principle 5 titled
“Economy and Efficiency” is considered by the department as a
performance measure, and not linked to an ethical concept. Experience has
shown that Principle 5 carries risk of conflict with the remaining 4 principles.
Recommendation - Principle 5 should be amended to an ethical value
such as “Promoting the Public Good”.
The Act requires departments to establish their own codes based on the
ethics principles, resulting in codes being formed in various styles and with
differing content. This may create a risk of public servants being treated
differently as the expectations of the various codes may not align.
Recommendation – One Code for the Public Sector with an option for
departments to tailor scenarios and other specific guidance material
and attach such guidance to the general Code to suit a department’s
needs.
Should the requirements for
Section 26 of the Public Service Act 2008 would be a logical place to locate
disclosure and managing conflicts
this for the general public service. To paraphrase the former Integrity
of interest be set out in
Commissioner Garry Crooke QC, public employment involves an element of
legislation?
service in which we consciously choose to place the public interest ahead of
our own personal interests. Conflict in itself is not bad it’s the way these are
managed, or not which creates an issue.
Recommendation – Legislative amendment
Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
How could safeguards to ensure
Conflicts of interest, when alleged and/or substantiated, possess the
conflicts of interest are
potential to damage the reputation of departments and its officers.
appropriately managed be
Enhancing control mechanisms to effectively deal with conflicts is an
improved?
ongoing responsibility of departments.
Recommendation - Annual certification be included in the PPA or
Achievement Planning process that conflicts be they real, potential or
perceived have been declared and managed as they arise.
Recommendation - Annual reports of agencies should specifically
report on this process.
Recommendation - Competency Based Position Descriptions be used
as a control by obligating applicants to disclose real, potential or
perceived conflicts.
Recommendation - Utilise existing Human Resource software (for
example, ESS) to provide fields for officers to disclose and/or escalate
conflicts.
The Premier has committed to
The department agrees with the Premier’s commitment.
require that all Government
Members of Parliament be
required to meet with the Integrity
Commissioner annually to discuss
their pecuniary interests and how
they intend to manage any
potential conflicts of interest which
may arise – should this
requirement also apply to
opposition and independent
Members of Parliament?
Should policies regarding gifts
To ensure consistency in application of the governance provided about gifts
and hospitality be the same for
and hospitality, openness and honesty in government is promoted by
Ministers, Members of Parliament
uniform rules and obligations.
and public sector employees?
Recommendation – Policy be reviewed to reflect the expectation that
Ministers, Members of Parliament and public sector employees share
a common obligation to disclose gifts and hospitality and seek
guidance about the best way forward when offers of a personal nature
(perceived or real arise).
Government contracts are
Sufficient guidance is provided to public service officers involved in
governed by strict procedures and
procurement processes.
legislation – are there any further
ways in which accountability and
transparency can be enhanced?
Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
Should probity auditors be
The public service manages large numbers of contracts. Probity audit
required for all contracts above a
provides assurance that procurement processes are open, transparent and
financial threshold or should this
align with the expectations of departments.
requirement be assessed on the
Recommendation – The former Queensland Transport used probity
basis of risk?
auditors for contracts in the past. Probity Auditor appointed based on
a pre-determined financial threshold.
Note – Interest by DTMR Legal Services in looking at the terms and
conditions on which probity auditors are engaged with a view to ensuring
that probity auditor advice is given in a public sector context, for example –
probity auditors have been purporting to impose a requirement on public
servants to sign deeds of confidentiality imposing obligations inconsistent
with the Code of Conduct and Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 obligations.
Should probity audit reports be
The department is committed to open and transparent government. The
made public following
Right to Information Act (RTI) does provide a high level of access to
appointment of the successful
departmental documents. The thrust of RTI is proactive publication of
tenderer?
information that is not commercial in confidence.
Recommendation - Probity reports be made publicly available subject
to commercial in confidence requirements.
Is information about the decision
The Department of Transport and Main Roads is committed to making the
making processes of Government
decision making processes employed by the department, open to the
sufficiently available?
public.
Recommendation – Decision making processes including statements
of reasons for decisions be made available to the public about
departmental actions which are in the public interest, are material and
that may affect individuals.
How else could this information
The Right to Information legislation provides adequate and appropriate
be made available to the public?
coverage to respond to the expectation of the public to be informed about
material decision making by the department.
How could prevention measures
be enhanced?
Prevention is a continuous and proactive responsibility of the accountable
officer. The Financial Performance and Management Standard 2009, at
Part 2, titled ‘Governance’ requires the accountable officer to establish a
governance
framework
to
manage
department’s
the
performance.
Governance includes the concepts of openness, integrity, due care and
public defensibility, and the principles for public officials pursuant to the
Public Sector Ethics Act 1994. The role of Ethical Standards and Human
Resource functions are components of an internal control structure to afford
sound governance in matters pertaining to ethics in the workplace. Ethics
and prevention are closely linked. Sound ethical and/or better decision
making
to
promote
the
public
good
is
achieved
by
prevention
methodologies.
Education, awareness and continuous review of the ethical landscape is
required to better prevent or minimise errant conduct which is not publicly
defensible and carries with it the risk of reputational damage.
Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
The key to preventing misconduct or errant decision making is raising the
ethical profile of the department by promoting the discussion of ethics,
openness, transparency and the public good in each officer’s every day
activities.
Recommendation – Oversight agencies such as the Crime and
Misconduct Commission, Queensland Ombudsman and Office of the
Public Service Commission make prevention a priority and assist
department’s in their efforts to raise the bar from an ethical
standpoint.
Recommendation – Existing course work from tertiary institutions (St
James Ethics Centre et al) be identified and be made available to
public service officers with incentives built in for completed modules.
Recommendation – Acknowledging and rewarding ethical decision
making.
Recommendation – E-Learning to supplement departmental ethical
awareness campaigns.
Are there any other ways the
The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) publication titled “Fraud and
CMC could assist public sector
Corruption Control – Guidelines for Best Practice” provides all relevant
agencies to build capacity to
agencies with guidance about a robust integrity framework, this document
prevent inappropriate conduct?
coupled with the CMC Devolution Project does provide sufficient materials
for departments to build or build upon their respective integrity framework.
Recommendation – The 10 point Integrity Framework as published by
the CMC become mandatory coupled with the CMC accrediting an
agency’s integrity framework using audit methodologies. The
accredited department and agencies should be acknowledged for
accreditation and such accreditation be made public.
How could the current legislative
The Whistleblowers Protection Act 1994 defines an appropriate discloser as
protections for whistleblowers be
a whistleblower, the term whistleblower has a pejorative sense.
enhanced?
Recommendation - The work of whistleblowers should be formally
recognised particularly if vindicated.
Recommendation - All whistleblowers should be debriefed after the
matter is settled and followed up on a regular basis.
Recommendation – Amend the Act’s title to “The Protected
Disclosures Act”.
Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
Are the current systems and
Historically, departments have developed their own mechanisms for dealing
processes in place to manage
with misconduct and ethical dilemmas. The state of maturity of systems and
investigations appropriate?
processes in place within the departments differs. Departments have for the
most part appointed specialist officers to manage misconduct and discharge
legislative obligations. However, there are no standing orders, legislation or
other administrative instruments available (other than in the Health Services
Act where investigators are defined) to provide guidance about minimum
expectations of Ethical Standards and its officers.
Recommendation – The Public Service Act 2008 or other statute be
amended to establish ethical standards and set out the role and
responsibility of officers appointed in Ethical Standards.
Recommendation – The CMC as part of its accreditation system,
provide a certification that an Ethical Standards Unit does posses the
requisite skills and experience to deal with and or prevent
misconduct and to provide guidance about ethical dilemmas as they
arise in a department.
Should the CMC have jurisdiction
Public assets should be subject to public scrutiny.
over Government Owned
Corporations which operate in a
non-competitive environment?
Are current disciplinary
Present discipline processes are siloed and remain the responsibility of
proceedings sufficient to deal with
each agency. Each agency has a separate code of conduct which carries a
the wide range of unacceptable
risk of inconsistency in dealing with substantiated misconduct across the
behavior that public officials could
sector. A sector wide code may be required. In criminal law, the judiciary
potentially engage in?
have guidance from the penalties in the legislation and case law. The
decision makers are highly trained professionals whereas the public sector
decision maker is untrained, part time and does not have guides available
for penalties or other outcomes. This is linked to comment at 25 for such
training. The Public Service Commission should be able to provide
indicative advice on suitable penalties. Appeal mechanisms should also
work for both the respondent and agency.
Recommendation – One size fits all code of conduct
Recommendation – The OPSC develop training materials for delegates
(GM and above) in the application of robust disciplinary procedures
and in better decision making about appropriate penalties to fit
substantiated misconduct.
Department of Transport and Main Roads
Integrity and Accountability in Queensland
How can the current regime of
There are a wide range of responses available for decision makers in the
sanctions for unacceptable
Public Service Act. However a decision maker should be compelled to also
behaviour be further enhanced to
consider whether there has been a management failure or a control
allow for appropriate responses?
breakdown requiring attention.
Recommendation - The PSC develop a uniform disciplinary regime for
all departments to use.
Recommendation - The PSC develop training materials for delegates
(GM and above) in the application of robust disciplinary procedures
and in better decision making about an appropriate penalty to fit the
substantiated misconduct.