Guidelines for decision makers
1.
Queensland has an extensive range of codes of conduct in place – are
any key individuals or groups missed?
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2.
Back to basics -ministerial responsibility (Westminster system)
Should the codes be strengthened in any way? If so, how should they be
strengthened?
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Codes are based on the 5 ethics principles in the Public sector Ethics
Act. The first issue is that the fifth principle, Economy and efficiency,
is a performance measure not an ethical concept. As such it can and
sometimes does conflict with the other 4 especially Integrity.
Managers are usually rewarded for managing budgets and resources
well but few get points for integrity. The fifth principle should be
amended to an ethical value such as promoting the public good.
Pecuniary interests registers and managing conflicts of
interest
3.
Should the requirements for disclosure and managing conflicts of interest
be set out in legislation?
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4.
How could safeguards to ensure conflicts of interest are appropriately
managed be improved?
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5.
Yes Section 26 of the Public Service Act would be a logical place to
locate this for the general public service. To paraphrase the former
Integrity Commissioner Garry Crooke QC, public employment
involves an element of service in which we consciously choose to
place the public good 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.
Each person who writes an investigation report or a Briefing for the
Minister should be required to describe their interest in the situation.
Because very often the public servant writing these documents are
the people responsible for the problem.
In the public service, an annual certification be included in the PPA
process that conflicts be they real, potential or perceived have been
declared and managed as they occurred. Annual reports of agencies
should specifically report on this process.
The Premier has committed to 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?
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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Yes and also to local authority councillors and to board members of
GOCs
Gifts and hospitality
6.
Should policies regarding gifts and hospitality be the same for Ministers,
Members of Parliament and public sector employees?
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Essentially yes but in the context that roles and expectations differ.
For example Ministers and CEOs must attend official functions at a
wide range of stakeholder groups to represent the government.
These functions may have speaking obligations and token gifts/meals
are part of the landscape
Political donations
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7.
Should donations to political parties be banned altogether? If so, how
should political parties be funded?
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8.
There may be some shades of grey here. People and organisations
can and do have genuine commitment to parties and issues. In this
context this commitment is expressed as a financial commitment
which is legitimate. Another consideration is to define political. Some
issues, Greens for example are both an issue and a political
response. How do political movements become parties and how do
we fund these in this development phase. On balance a total ban is
not supported.
If donations from an individual, corporation or organisation (including
trade unions) were to be capped at a certain amount per year, what
should the amount be:
• $1500?
• $1000?
• another amount?
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9.
The issue for this section should not be to limit funding but to about
making donations truly transparent and accountable.
It is about managing what the donors want in return. No such thing as
a free lunch.
There may be a case to limit the size but again there are definitional
problems which may limit effectiveness. Compulsory disclosure is an
option.
Should there be a ban on all Members of Parliament taking part in
exclusive political fundraising functions with members of the private
sector?
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Yes bribes are too easy to disguise as a donation.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
10. How should this be regulated to ensure it does not limit legitimate
grassroots fundraising?
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All donations/fundraising be reported
11. Should Members only be allowed to attend fundraisers where the price
for attendance is less than a certain amount?
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No, disclosure is the best control
12. Should there be a cap on the amount of money political parties can
spend on an election campaign? How do in kind contributions get valued?
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Disclosure is a better way to control.
13. Should there be a specific limit on expenditure on political advertising?
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Too difficult to police and advertisers are very creative in devising
new forms of publicity which do not appear to be ads. Definitional
problems would limit effectiveness.
Lobbying
14. The Queensland Government has announced it will ban success fees,
using the Canadian model – are there any additional changes to
regulating lobbyists that would enhance integrity and accountability in
public administration?
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Oversight by an all party committee not based on which party has the
numbers
15. Is the Department of Premier and Cabinet the appropriate body to
oversee the Lobbyist Register? If not, who should oversee the register?
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No it is subject to political control. An independent office holder such
as the Auditor General or Integrity Commissioner could do this
16. Should the Contact with Lobbyists Code be expanded to include other
provisions which lobbyists must adhere to?
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A mandated code of ethical practice would be a good start .Given the
influence they wield and the potential impact on the public good,
maybe there should be a licensing process similar to real estate
agents.
17. Should a person be required to sign a copy of the Contact with Lobbyists
Code to indicate their acceptance of its requirements before they can be
placed on the Register of Lobbyists?
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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Signatures are not enough. There must be evidence of their
understanding of the code and to attest to their good character.
18. Should the government require that lobbyist-client contracts contain
certain standard provisions?
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Yes but the devil will be in the detail.
19. Should registration on the Register of Lobbyists be subject to a good
character requirement? Who should assess applications to determine
whether an applicant is of good character?
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Auditor General or Integrity Commissioner
What is “good character” – just because someone is not a convicted
felon or declared bankrupt does not mean they are of good character
(maybe they just haven’t been caught) – need to understand what
“good character” is.
Procurement processes
20. Government contracts are governed by strict procedures and legislation
– are there any further ways in which accountability and transparency
can be enhanced?
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Accountability and transparency are detective in nature – need to
focus on preventative measures -Training, training, and training.
Periodic testing / retesting of procurement officers as to their
understanding of processes, procedures and ethical conduct.
Vendors to have open book arrangements when dealing with
government.
21. Should probity auditors be required for all contracts above a financial
threshold or should this requirement be assessed on the basis of risk?
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Risk is the issue.
22. Should probity audit reports be made public following appointment of the
successful tenderer?
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Yes but subject to commercial in confidence riders
No, if the underlying process is solid then it shouldn’t need to be
made public.
Transparency
23. Is information about the decision making processes of Government
sufficiently available?
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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I suspect it is not the processes which are critical but the reasons for
the decision.
Certain ministerial interventions to be publically registered.
Public servants should be required to list the documents that they
used in reaching a decision.
Too many public service decisions seemed to be based on
documents which promptly "vanish" so you have no way of
understanding the reasons for the decisions. “Lost documents”
should be a “red flag” warranting clarification / investigation.
24. How else could this information be made available to the public?
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Cabinet confidentiality is probably a barrier but statements of reasons
may be a good thing
Prevention
25. How could prevention measures be enhanced?
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Mandatory annual ethics training for parliamentarians, councillors,
advisors to parliamentarians and councillors.
Annual ethics training for all public servants.
There should be a public service staff college set up to run university
affiliated courses in public administration including ethics. These
should be structured at entry level, first line supervisor, middle
management and SO and above. These should make diploma and
degree level qualifications available to participants. The Office of the
Public Service Commissioner should run these with input from the
CMC, Auditor General and Ombudsman.
Legislative requirement to have a senior level, proactive ethics
advisor for the CEO of each department. One who is not responsible
for the actual conducting of training which may detract from ability to
focus on the issues.
Alternate view of the previous point -Don't believe that the creation of
ethics officers/advisers is helpful. Ethics should be a compulsory part
of everyone's employment. There is a risk that by creating a specialist
position, even the DG will go "It's Monday the 1st January, it must be
time for the ethics discussion".
Provide tools such as the CMC ethics decision card to all public
servants/ GOC employees and those supplying to government
entities.
Community training / education.
People are being victimised by organisations that do not provide
employees with job or position descriptions, try and make them
accountable through ineffective performance management systems.
Once upon a time, job descriptions provided a clear understanding to
individuals regarding their employment.
Pre-appointment ethical training for public servants and a
demonstrated expectation that public servants will comply with the
ethical standards.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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Consequences for poor ethical conduct to be made clear for new and
existing public servants.
School Principals should be expected to demonstrate their
understanding of Education Queensland policies before they are
appointed to "acting" positions. If they are not willing to study, they
are not suitable for promotion.
26. Are there any other ways the CMC could assist public sector agencies to
build capacity to prevent inappropriate conduct?
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Offer more free / economic training
The CMC has published a 10 point guideline for best practice. This
should be mandatory. The CMC should be an accrediting body for PS
integrity frameworks.
Stop allowing government agencies to investigate themselves – CMC
to take a more robust approach to ensuring agencies are in a position
to objectively and thoroughly investigate and report on complaints of
misconduct.
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27. Is there a more effective way that the CMC could deal with complaints
regarding police misconduct?
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28. How could the current legislative protections for whistleblowers be
enhanced?
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Change the Act’s title to Protected Disclosures to avoid the pejorative
sense of the term whistleblower.
Expand what is public interest disclosure. Disclosures in private
industry and GOCs may not generally be protected.
The courage of whistleblowers should be formally recognised
particularly if vindicated.
All whistleblowers should be debriefed after the matter is settled and
followed up on a regular basis to ensure they are ok
How will the issue of fear be addressed? Despite having
'whistleblower reporting documentation', the unwritten ground rules
make it extremely dangerous to report wrong doing. How many
employees will report wrong doing if their immediate supervisor is the
one doing it (particularly when that supervisor also does their
performance management)?
There are many in the public sector that are trying to fly under the
radar, have large mortgages and just go to work to survive, and
reporting wrong doing will end up with them being treated like a rape
victim -having to tell their story over and over again, and they will end
up being victimised by the very system that is supposed to help them.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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The Whistleblower should be provided with a written document to
acknowledge their disclosure and to re-assure them that they will be
protected from reprisal.
Are the mechanisms to find unacceptable behaviour sufficient?
29. Are the current systems and processes in place to manage
investigations appropriate?
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There is no standard in place investigators must be qualified either by
experience or formal training.
Clarify the rules on who is required to be licensed.
The investigator should be required to describe his or her "interest" in
the situation.
The investigator should not be supervised by the person being
complained about.
The practice of simply copying down statements should not be
described as an "investigation". It is dictation.
30. Should the CMC have jurisdiction over Government Owned Corporations
which operate in a non-competitive environment?
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Public assets should be subject to public scrutiny. But such GOCs
would need to be shown to lack adequate supervision from the
existing company regulation framework and their status as a GOC
questioned if there is not a need for a competitive environment. The
CMC would also need better/ more resources to deal with this.
CMC needs to be able to add value to the process over and above
what the organisations and Qld Police are doing.
Sanctions for unacceptable behaviour
31. Are current disciplinary proceedings sufficient to deal with the wide range
of unacceptable behaviour that public officials could potentially engage in?
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There is a fundamental flaw in present discipline in that the process is
siloed to each agency and each agency has a separate code of
conduct. A sector wide code may be required.
• In criminal law, the judiciary 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 my comment at 25 for such training.
• The Office of the Public Service Commissioner should be able to
provide indicative advice on suitable penalties.
• Appeal mechanisms should work for both the respondent and agency.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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Make it easier for Managers to discipline unacceptable behaviour by
supporting such action in workplace relations law.
Make it a serious “offence” of putting in a vexatious counter claim
against a manager by a staff member being disciplined.
Make it a serious offence for a public service manager to discipline a
public servant for malicious or "payback" reasons.
32. How can the current regime of sanctions for unacceptable behaviour be
further enhanced to allow for appropriate responses?
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There are a wide range of responses available for decision makers in
the Public Service Act. However a decision maker should be
compelled to also consider whether there has been a management
failure or a control breakdown requiring attention.
Public Services Commission and Integrity Commission should
provide tools and guidance.
Keep records of punitive actions taken and share this information so
that a common response can develop.
Allow and protect referees so that they can provide honest feedback
to potential employers of employers who have been disciplined or
would have been disciplined had they not resigned.
A decision maker should be compelled to also consider whether there
has been a management failure.
33. How could the police disciplinary procedures be improved?
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It is a bit disappointing that there seems to be a focus on the police
service disciplinary system. It would be interesting to know how many
Commissions of Inquiry, Reviews etc have been conducted across
the public sector in the last 20 years, and then compare that with the
police service Inquiries and Reviews. It seems that police services
(world wide) end up being the whipping post when things go wrong. It
might be far better for public sector agencies to use the findings from
those Commissions of Inquiry or Reviews to see how they can
improve their systems and processes.
34. Should the Commissioner of Police have the power to dismiss an officer
the Commissioner has lost confidence in?
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Further suggestions
35. Are there any other ways Queensland’s integrity and accountability
framework can be strengthened and improved?
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The office of Integrity Commissioner be a direct report to Parliament.
The Integrity Commissioner role be full time.
The Integrity Commissioner role be able to initiate action or review.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland
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The Integrity Commissioner role have a lead role in promoting public
sector ethics.
Senior managers and executives to be able to consult with the
Integrity Commissioner without having to go through their
CEO/Commissioner first.
The Integrity Commissioner role to cover local authorities.
Local councils did not get much coverage in this green paper.
For local councils, developers’ conflicts of interest need greater
coverage.
Reinforce tone from the top. “The fish does rot from the head”
(doesn't matter which political party or CEO is in power), unless they
actually set the tone from the top and do what they say they will do,
nothing is going to change.
Change management
Overcome cultural issues which may accept nepotism, favours and
bribes.
Define “ethics” and “integrity” – means different things to different
people and at different times.
CMC to cover to have authority over the private sector like is done by
ICAC Hong Kong.
There are numerous public sector employees who are trying to do the
right things, but there are so many policies and procedures out there
that are not backed up with an implementation plan or audit process,
that these employees end up doing what is easiest without realising
the implications of 'following the administrator'. I say administrator
because I believe there are many managers and even fewer 'leaders'
who really understand what this whole ethics thing is.
Working in the public sector is about learning to manage the 'politics'.
No training is provided in relation to this and every time there are
budget cuts, the training budget is generally first to go.
Corruption Prevention Network Queensland