The New South Wales opposition has warned that the state’s anti-corruption and integrity watchdogs are being starved of funding despite increasing workloads and threadbare staffing.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) was given what the NSW government described as “record” funding in 2017-18, amounting to $27m a year for four years.
But Icac’s expenses spiked to $28.7m last year due to the complexity of its investigations, which brought unforeseen legal and transcription costs.
This year, the budget has dropped by $2.9m to $25.8m, a reduction of 10%, though the government says this is still above previous average funding levels.
Icac’s staffing levels, meanwhile, are at near-record lows, according to the most recent figures. Average staffing was 104.96 and 98.07 fulltime equivalents in 2017-18 and 2016-17 respectively, well below the levels seen prior to 2015-16.
Icac’s staffing peaked at 126.4 fulltime staff in 2013-14.
The number of matters received by Icac – including public complaints, referrals, and own-motion investigations – has climbed from 2,436 to 2,751 in the past two financial years.
The shadow attorney general, Paul Lynch, is also concerned about reduced or stagnating budgets for a range of other integrity agencies.
The NSW ombudsman had its funding reduced by almost $1m in last week’s budget.
Lynch said the budgets for the information and privacy commissioner and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission had also failed to keep pace with inflation.
“This government’s commitment to integrity in government is pretty shaky,” Lynch said. “Despite their rhetoric, if they’re not funding investigative and accountability agencies properly, then they’re just not putting a priority on integrity.
“These agencies can’t do their job if they are subjected to restricted funding.”
Special minister of state, Don Harwin, rejected suggestions NSW’s integrity bodies were being denied adequate funding. Harwin said last year Icac was provided with supplementary funding during the course of the year, and any future in-year funding requests made by Icac would be considered by the government.
“In 2018-19, we provided the ICAC with record funding of $106 million over four years, and the ICAC’s expense budget of $25.8 million in 2019-20 remains at historically high levels, up from previous annual average levels of $24 million per year,” he said.
“In accordance with existing practice, the ICAC was granted in-year supplementary grant funding during 2018-19 to deal with specific investigations, a fact reflected in the $1.54 million increase in other operating expenses between the 2018-19 Budget and Revised figures.”
Harwin also said Icac’s employee-related funding would increase from 2018-19 to 2019-20. He said combined funding fir the LECC, Ombudsman, and IPC had increased this year.
Icac declined to comment on its budget. But in 2017 it warned cuts had forced it to reduce the number of investigators and “meet the challenges in delivering investigation outcomes” as a result of “significant” funding cuts. Icac revealed it had hired temporary investigators to meet demand and reduced the number of its investigative units from four to three.
The Public Service Association’s assistant secretary, Troy Wright, said the current government had been “ripping teeth out of the corruption watchdog one by one”.
“Corruption doesn’t stay still – it evolves and changes as corrupt people seek to exploit any weakness,” Wright said. “That is why funding levels are so important because we have to fun proper investigations and punish those who take advantage.
“Corrupt politicians have feared Icac for a generation because it has real teeth. This government has been ripping teeth out of the corruption watchdog one by one. A gummy corrupt watchdog ensures that corrupt practises will go unpunished and corrupt people will prosper and the incentive for corruption will rise.”
Icac underwent significant reform in late 2016, when the NSW parliament passed changes that significantly altered its structure, powers, and oversight.
Icac became a three-member commission, which required the authorisation of the chief commissioner and at least one other commissioner to hold a public inquiry. It was also required to give affected persons a reasonable opportunity to respond before it made adverse findings about them.
The last Labor budget for Icac in 2010-11 gave the agency $19.85m.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, was approached for comment.
