National Anti‐Corruption Commission report

By Eleanor Doig

The National Anti‐Corruption Commission has released its inaugural annual report, offering insights into its first year of operations. The National Anti‐Corruption Commission is Australia’s first Commonwealth agency with broad‐based jurisdiction to investigate Commonwealth public sector corruption. Its annual report describes establishing a new agency and the challenges of investigating corruption in a complex operating environment.

The National Anti‐Corruption Commission’s purpose

The National Anti‐Corruption Commission (NACC) was established to provide independent assurance that corrupt conduct involving Commonwealth public officials is prevented, detected, investigated and addressed appropriately. It aims to do this through education, monitoring, investigation, reporting and referral.

The National Anti‐Corruption Commission (NACC) Act identifies four types of corrupt conduct that the NACC can investigate relating to the Commonwealth public sector:

• breach of public trust by a public official;
• abuse of office by a public official;
• misuse of information gained by a public official or former public official in their capacity as a public official; and
• adversely affecting a public official’s honest or impartial exercise of powers or performance of official duties.

A person is considered to have engaged in corrupt conduct if they try or plan to do any of these things.

While the NACC received 3,190 referrals of suspected corrupt conduct in 2023-24, 90 per cent of these referrals were excluded because they did not concern a Commonwealth public official or did not raise a corruption issue within the definition of the Act.

The proportion of referrals that were not within scope of the NACC’s mandate indicate a lack of awareness about its role. The report emphasises that although not within scope, the referrals contribute to the NACC’s intelligence about the context in which it operates.

Results

During the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024:

• the Commissioner dealt with a total of 266 corruption issues
• the NACC commenced 19 investigations and an additional seven joint investigations (a total of 26 corruption investigations)
• No investigations commenced under the NACC Act were completed during the reporting period
• One of the NACC investigations commenced during the reporting period resulted in prosecution of a (then) Commonwealth public official in March 2024. The investigation was ongoing at time of release of the report.

Of the 26 corruption investigations commenced during the reporting period, the NACC reported that they concerned one or more of the following:

• current or former parliamentarians or parliamentary staff
• current or former senior executive officials
• law enforcement officials
• consultants or contractors
• procurement
• recruitment
• corrupt conduct at the border
• grants
• misconduct in law enforcement.

The NACC observed both a perception of and actual corrupt conduct in three dominant domains in the Commonwealth public sector: procurement, recruitment and promotion and the public/private interface. The actual or perceived corrupt conduct typically involved preferential treatment of family, friends and associates, and the misuse of information or opportunity to gain an advantage. This conduct led to a subversion of the public decision‐making process to serve a private benefit. In response to these trends, the NACC featured conflicts of interest as a key part of its corruption prevention and education activities in 2024.

The NACC has made clear that most corruption investigations do not ultimately result in a finding of corrupt conduct. The report emphasises the NACC’s complex operating environment:

‘The investigation of corrupt conduct is challenging, because corruption is conducted in secret; its hallmarks are confidential communications and inscrutable exercises of power. Often it involves complex pathways of deception and deceit. Finding, testing, challenging and unravelling these necessarily takes time’.

Case studies and significant investigations

The report describes the investigation and subsequent arrest of a (then) Commonwealth public official, a former employee of the Western Sydney Airport. The investigation ‘highlighted the risk of individuals using their involvement in complex and lucrative procurement processes to allegedly find opportunities to solicit personal benefits’. The matter was before the courts at the time the report was released.

The report outlines outcomes of five ACLEI inherited investigations that:

1. Examined whether a Home Affairs staff member had been involved in corrupt conduct through familial links with Paladin Holdings, a contracted service provider to Home Affairs for the provision of garrison services in Papua New Guinea.
2. Identified that a former ATO employee had extensively accessed various taxation records without authority.
3. Involved a former AFP Superintendent who pleaded guilty to charges related to fraudulent use of their Commonwealth credit card involving more than $17,000 in personal expenditure.
4. Involved a former ATO employee who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a taxpayer they were auditing, in exchange for reducing millions of dollars in personal and business tax debts over six years.
5. Involved a member of the AFP arrested for corruption, theft and money laundering offences. The matter continued before the court at time of release of the report.

Conclusion

Although in its infancy, the NACC has already highlighted the strong public interest and demand for an independent agency focused on corrupt conduct involving Commonwealth public officials. If you are interested in staying updated on the Commission’s activities, you can subscribe to receive notifications about news and media releases from the Commission.

Resources

• NACC Annual Report 2023-2024
• NACC Corporate Plan 2023-2027
• National Anti-Corruption Commission

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