THE hiring process for thousands of state and local public servants is “clearly vulnerable to corruption and misconduct”, Victoria’s integrity watchdog has warned.
An Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission report has identified risks that have compromised the recruitment process, including nepotism, favouritism, and conflicts of interests.
It found inadequate screening — including failures to check qualifications, employment histories and criminal records — could also leave public sector agencies “at greater risk of corruption”.
IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich, QC, said changes were needed so that the public service — which employs 297,000 people at state level and 43,000 at local level — was not tarnished by corrupt conduct.
“It wastes significant time and public money, and damages reputations and community trust,” Mr Redlich said.
The report detailed several IBAC and Ombudsman’s investigations, which found:
A SENIOR manager at Places Victoria, previously sacked from a private company for serious misconduct, awarded more than $8 million in contracts to “entities that were effectively under his direction and control”.
THE former chief of V/Line did not advertise for a new rolling-stock general manager and appointed someone lacking the required qualifications.
A MEMBER of Victoria Police was promoted to sergeant despite more than a dozen complaints about his behaviour.
AN officer at the Metropolitan Fire Brigade employed both her sons, having previously hired one “using the same fraudulent process” when working for Parks Victoria.
A recent IBAC survey found a quarter of state government employees had seen family or friends hired for public sector jobs rather than a “merit-based recruitment process” being followed.
About 38,000 state government positions were filled in the 2017 financial year.
The report found “problematic employees can move between agencies with little fear their history will follow them”.
IBAC suggested consideration of a central register of public sector staff and their disciplinary histories.
Victorian Public Sector Commissioner Dr Paul Grimes welcomed the report’s “valuable observations” which “merit further consideration”.
By: Tom Minear, State Political Reporter, Herald Sun
Source: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/corruption-in-public-service-hiring-processes-targeted-by-ibac/news-story/721663f26229cc3323c7cc45b919c54f?csp=067832991c65ed04b348ef2aa3551b5b