Adelaide councillors flooding Office of Public Integrity with too many complaints about each to other, ICAC boss says

INDEPENDENT Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander has taken a swipe at “sensitive” local councillors and urged them to stop complaining about each other to his office.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Thomas Lander, who also heads up the Office for Public Integrity, speaks to a parliamentary committee. Picture: Dylan Coker

• ICAC to investigate Oakden scandal

SENSITIVE local councillors should stop complaining about each other and lodging official protests about trivial matters with the state’s Office for Public Integrity, its boss warns.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander, who also runs the OPI, said he received “a lot” of complaints about councillors, from colleagues, about minor matters.

Speaking before a State Parliament committee, Mr Lander said: “It’s too common”.

“They’re really made because they (the councillors) dislike the other person,” he said.

“They are too sensitive, so to speak, and they complain about things that really don’t require the expense of public resources to investigate.”

Mr Lander explained that he even addressed one council in person, “inviting them to stop complaining to the OPI”. “The next day I got two complaints,” he laughed.

In contrast, Mr Lander said he did not receive similar complaints from elected members at the State Government level, who he felt were “more robust and thick-skinned”.

Mr Lander was speaking to the Crime and Public Integrity Committee about a range of issues, including local government codes of conduct, which he said he felt were being “misused”.