ACT public servants have accessed a database and manipulated information without permission and accepted cash incentives to complete non-government work in the past year, while 11 possible instances of fraud committed by government staff have been referred to the territory's integrity commission.
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Two bureaucrats were sacked from the ACT public service in the last financial year after they were found to have acted fraudulently and four public servants were fined or received permanent demotions.
A person who worked for the Transport Canberra City Services Directorate was sacked without notice after they were found to have submitted fraudulent medical certificates, the directorate's annual report said.
The Community Services Directorate also terminated the employment of a worker, while the directorate also referred two other matters regarding its own staff to the integrity commission.
"The directorate received allegations of possible fraud and corruption by three current individual employees, and one work team. One of these matters has been finalised through formal counselling, one was determined to be unfounded, one matter was finalised with the employee's cessation of employment, and an external investigation is being arranged for the other matter," the directorate's annual report said.
The Community Services Directorate also referred to the integrity commission allegations of corrupt conduct by staff of two non-government organisations which received grant funding from the directorate.
The Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate received 12 allegations of fraud and corruption. Two of the reports were referred to ACT police.
The Education Directorate received five fraud reports, with just one referred to the integrity commissioner after the others reports were not substantiated.
Meanwhile, one fraud investigation at WorkSafe ACT was ended after the person retired.
"The areas of risk of potential fraud are finance-related matters, the use of work vehicles and the falsification of flex sheet, on-call allowances and claims for overtime," the office of the work safety commissioner's annual report said.
The ACT's integrity commission conducted nine corruption investigations in 2020-21 and carried out 12 preliminary inquiries. None of the corruption investigations had been completed by June 30.
Five of the nine corruption investigations included allegations of corrupt decision making, but matters also included purported instances of unlawful activity, corrupt influence, collusion and maladministration.
The ACT's integrity commissioner, Michael Adams QC, in April said the close personal connections forged in Canberra's relatively small community creates a greater risk of corruption.
"[People in Canberra] meet at school, they get jobs here, they grow up knowing each other, in that sense it's a relatively small community," Mr Adams said.
"When it comes then to conflicts of interest, when it comes to complicated relationships because people know each other, that can be good for doing business efficiently and effectively but that also carries a risk."
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Mr Adams said at the time much of the commission's functions would need to take place in secret, but there would need to be public awareness of its work.
"The fundamental purpose is to give the community confidence in government but confidence that an integrity commission can work to assist in building up integrity," Mr Adams said.
"If everything remained secret, how are the public going to judge that? That's always in our horizon, as being something that's quite important; it just takes time to do."
Investigation activity has grown by 200 per cent in the last year, even though the commission has not released a report since it was established more than two years ago.
The commission is also seeking to expand the definition of corruption to better cover the activities of local politicians, as its investigation workload continues to grow.
The current definition of corrupt conduct would require a criminal offence to cover politicians' corruption, which was too narrow.
"There is a wide range of serious misconduct constituting a breach of public trust that may require examination by the commission which does not amount to a criminal offence," the commission's annual report said.
"Serious breaches of the applicable code of conduct would appear to fall into this category. The commission recommends that the definition be expanded accordingly."
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
