The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has found a senior Home Affairs executive engaged in “serious” corrupt conduct by helping her sister’s fiancé secure a role in the department.
The watchdog found the official – who has since resigned – passed on job application interview questions and forged a signature to speed up the candidate’s onboarding.
The NACC recommended steps for Home Affairs to safeguard against future cases of “nepotism, cronyism and undeclared conflicts of interest”.
NACC
The Federal Government set up the NACC in June 2023.
It’s designed to identify corruption in the Australian Public Service, among federal politicians, and their staffers.
Once a referral is made to the NACC, it then considers whether to investigate.
This investigation is the first start-to-finish report it has published.
What happened?
The NACC published details of its Home Affairs investigation using pseudonyms. It centres on ‘Joanne’, who worked as a senior executive in a global policy arm of Home Affairs.
Her sister was living in Italy with her long-term partner, who the NACC called ‘Mark’, when Joanne recommended him for a role.
Mark applied, though he did not have much relevant experience. One of the people involved in his application told a colleague: “I find it a bit unusual that [Joanne] is personally pursuing requirements for this dude in Italy.”
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your details:
Joanne provided Mark with the panel’s interview questions in advance to help him prepare.
Part of the remote screening process also involved getting access to an onboarding form. Joanne partially filled out the form, pretending to be a witness, signing off the document as ‘James Smith’.
The NACC report details text messages sent between the sister, where they discuss Mark’s application process. At one stage, Joanne said to her sister that if he didn’t lie about the nature of their relationship, she would get in “trouble”.
Conclusion
The NACC investigated the matter after a Home Affairs employee referred it to the watchdog.
It found the type of corruption Joanne had engaged in was “serious” because of her seniority and “systemic” due to the repeated behaviours.
Joanne has since stepped down into a lower-paying private-sector job.
The NACC’s report into her conduct noted she accepted the findings and expressed remorse.
Home Affairs
Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton said a previous survey of public sector staff revealed “nepotism and cronyism are among the most frequently observed corrupt behaviours.”
The NACC made various recommendations to safeguard Home Affairs from future incidents, including updating the process for declaring a conflict of interest.
In a statement to TDA, a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said it accepted the NACC’s recommendations, saying it had a “positive reporting culture”.
