More than 870 federal public servants were found to have acted corruptly over a six-year period, according to internal investigations, with another 162 acting dishonestly or without integrity in the last 12 months.
The code of conduct breaches have been confirmed by the Australian Public Service Commission (Apsc), which has also revealed the creation of a new “central team” to investigate serious misconduct allegations in response to the robotdebt scandal.
The Apsc’s state of the service report, tabled in federal parliament this week, reveals 29 public servants did not take reasonable steps to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest that may have interfered with their work last financial year.
The disclosure comes after months of intense scrutiny on conflicts of interest within the consultancy industry, which have been cited as one reason to reduce the amount of work that is outsourced to the private sector.
The latest Apsc figures come days after the National Anti-corruption Commission (Nacc) confirmed it received more than 2,100 referrals since its creation less than six months ago, with dozens of preliminary or formal investigations now under way.
“Since 1 July 2023, 1,532 referrals have been excluded at the triage stage because they do not involve a commonwealth public official or do not raise a corruption issue,” a Nacc spokesperson said in a statement released late last week.
The spokesperson said another 223 referrals were pending triage, with 58 being triaged and another 177 being considered. The Nacc has launched 13 “preliminary investigations” to obtain more information, which can involved compelling information or documents.
“To date, the commission has opened eight new investigations, and has referred three corruption issues to commonwealth agencies to which the issues relate for investigation,” the spokesperson said.
“The commission continues to work on six active investigations inherited from the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity. The commission does not comment on ongoing investigations as to do so may compromise operational activities or unfairly impact reputations.”
The Apsc’s report did not reveal the allegations of corruption that were substantiated by departments between 2017-18 and 2022-23. It also did not name any public servants but did reference a range of other code of conduct breaches.
More than 50 public servants were found to have not acted with care or diligence in their work last financial year. Another 389 undermined the “integrity and good reputation” of their department and the public service more broadly.
About 4,000 of the 127,000 public servants (3.2%) who participated in the annual survey run by the Apsc said they “had witnessed another APS employee within their agency engaging in behaviour they considered may be serious enough to be viewed as corruption”.
The most common complaint was cronyism or the preferential treatment of friends. Other common complaints were nepotism and failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
In a foreword to the Apsc report, the commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, said he was “immensely proud of public servants, their deep commitment to serving our community and the contribution they make”. But he also highlighted some “unacceptable behaviours” that needed to be addressed.
“In 2023, 10.4% of respondents to the APS employee census indicated they had been subjected to harassment or bullying in the workplace in the last 12 months, up from 9.7% in 2022,” de Brouwer said.
“Reported rates of perceived harassment or bullying are higher for some agencies, and this is shown in a new agency benchmarking section in this report. We must have a culture of zero tolerance for any form of unacceptable behaviour in the Australian public service, and work together to bring this about.”
