An SES Band 1 officer who was employed at the Department of Home Affairs has been found to have been involved in corrupt conduct. Photo: Google.
A Senior Executive Service Band 1 officer in the Department of Home Affairs engaged in corrupt conduct on multiple occasions, according to a National Anti-Corruption Commission investigation.
On Monday (30 June) the NACC published the report of its Operation Kingscliff investigation into the department’s high ranking officer.
It found she had abused her office to give her sister and her sister’s fiancé an improper benefit and engaged in further corrupt conduct by misusing official information.
A key element of the investigation was the transfer of the sister’s fiancé to Home Affairs under section 26 of the Public Service Act 1999.
The NACC found the SES official’s involvement in the transfer included her promoting her sister’s fiancé as a candidate for a position in Home Affairs and praising him to colleagues.
She also created the job requisition, approved it herself and forged a witness signature on paperwork to fast-track onboarding.
The woman did this all while deliberately concealing the family relationship from others.
The Commission said at no point did she disclose the relationship.
In a separate employment process, the SES official provided interview questions to her sister in advance.
In a statement about its findings, the Commission said it found the conduct was serious because of the: “seniority of the public official, the deception involved and the significant benefits of securing a public service role; and systemic because the behaviours were repeated and because nepotism, cronyism and undeclared conflicts of interest in APS recruitment are an area of widespread concern.”
National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton says he would have recommended the woman’s termination from APS employment if she has not already resigned. Photo: Region, screenshot.
The woman has already resigned from the APS, with National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton saying if she had not done so he would have recommended her employment be terminated.
“Since the Commission was established, we’ve received many referrals about recruitment and promotion in the Australian Public Service,” he said.
“In the 2024 Commonwealth Integrity Survey, public sector employees told us that nepotism and cronyism are among the most frequently observed corrupt behaviours.
“Operation Kingscliff is a paradigm case that illustrates systemic risks in APS recruitment.
“It reinforces the need for strong corruption prevention measures – including mandatory conflict of interest disclosures in all recruitment processes – and prevention of improper disclosures of official information.”
The report makes a number of recommendations based on the case aimed at reducing the risk of similar misconduct in the APS and to deter future occurrences while increasing the likelihood of timely detection.
Those recommendations go to ways of reducing the risk of undisclosed conflicts of interest in recruitment (whether by deliberate intent, error or oversight); and to mitigating the risk of improper disclosure of interview questions.
The recommendations state: “In relation to specific Home Affairs policies:
• Amend the Conflict of Interest Procedural Instruction (SM1556) to make specific provision for identifying declaring and managing conflicts of interest in section 26 transfer processes; and
• Review the Recruitment Procedural Instruction (HR2171) to explicitly include a requirement to declare and manage conflicts of interest in section 26 transfers, similar to those already explicitly in place for other recruitment processes.
Commissioner Brereton also stresses in the report how the SES Band 1 officer was obliged to promote the APS Values, APS Employment Principles and APS Code of Conduct by personal example.
“The APS Ethical Value is to demonstrate leadership, be trustworthy and act with integrity,” he said.
“The conduct demonstrated by the above findings is antithetical to those values.
“Had [she] remained an APS employee, I would have made a recommendation, for the purposes of subsection 15(2) of the Public Service Regulations 2023 (Cth), to terminate her employment.
“As she has resigned from the APS, this would now be superfluous.
“The loss, as result of the exposure of her corrupt conduct, of her APS appointment and career and the associated financial loss of salary and other benefits and the adverse impact of her conduct on her mental health and her consciousness of its impact on her family members are significant repercussions of her conduct.”
Operation Kingscliff is the fourth investigation report published by the Commission and the first report on an investigation commenced and completed since the Commission was established on 1 July 2023.
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