ICAC boss says corruption exists in SA Health, but record keeping so bad it’s hard to see how rife it is
ICAC boss Bruce Lander has revealed corruption exists in SA Health — but says record-keeping is so bad he can’t determine just how rife it is. And he doesn’t have enough resources to investigate.
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The state’s anti-corruption watchdog wants to investigate SA Health over mounting concerns it is riddled with corrupt staff and failing processes but is hampered by a lack of resources, it has emerged.
In a rare public statement, Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander QC lashed the bureaucracy for costing taxpayers millions through “bad” record keeping, vague contracts and conflicts of interest.
He said he wanted to launch a wide-ranging inquiry into the multibillion-dollar department to root out widespread problems and a “significant waste of public resources”.
He was frustrated by a lack of “significant” resources that meant taxpayers were left with “not a good result” that failed to uncover potential corruption, misconduct or maladministration — irregular and unauthorised use of public money or substantial mismanagement.
Revealing he is “very confident” corruption exists in the agency, he said he had raised his concerns with SA Health chief executive Chris McGowan “several” times.
“It is a matter of significant concern and should be for the public of South Australia that we have maladministration of that kind because it will interfere with proper governance and will make corruption difficult to detect and it will cost the taxpayer a lot of money,” he said in Adelaide today.
He had concerns on other departments but declined to name any because of “operational” needs, suggesting other agencies were under similar investigation.
Health Minister Stephen Wade today said the Government was open to an inquiry, the precise deails of which would now be explored.
He said funding was a matter for Mr Lander.
Mr Wade said he and Mr Lander shared a common goal to “root out” problems in the crisis-plagued SA Health but downplayed a need for any Royal Commission.
“I trust the professional judgement of the ICAC Commissioner,” he said.
“He is convinced that there is corruption being shielded by poor record keeping and maladministration, I accept that advice.
“We are determined to root out any corruption or maladministration and I would welcome any inquiry.”
Cancer patient Andrew Knox said the need for reform into SA Health would have become obvious had former premier Jay Weatherill agreed to a royal commission into the chemo bungle.
Mr Knox was one of a dozen cancer patients whose were given the wrong chemotherapy doses by SA Health. Several patients died and a coronial inquest found shocking failures in the hospital system.
“With all the secrecy and threats that surround our ICAC, we health system users would remain shut out,” Mr Knox said.
“Still only an open and broad royal commission can heal the health system. The limited jurisdiction of the coronial inquiry only scratched the surface. The secrecy in an ICAC will only create more confusion and collateral damage. I should know.”
Mr Lander backed the Government’s hiring of consultant KordaMentha to oversee a financial turnaround of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network.
The network was headed towards a $300 million-a-year budget blowout but the corporate auditors have cut at least $104 million in its first six months.
“The bigger problem with health is we know what the problems are,” he said.
“We just find it frustrating in the course of our investigations to find we can’t identify with the necessary precision the arrangements that were entered into between health and its employees.
“And whether or not the employees are taking are corrupt advantage of those arrangements or the arrangements are just so bad commercially.”
He added: “Our experience (is) the Department of Health is riddled with maladministration and has been during the course of the operation of this office. I still think there is a significant maladministration in health.
“(It) interfered with our ability to investigate corruption in health because of poor record keeping, because of the poor arrangements that are entered into and the failure of management often to understand what the arrangements are into which they have entered.
“We have investigated a number of matters in … health where the allegation has been corruption.”
He continued: “However the record keeping are so bad and the arrangements so bad that you can’t identify precisely what arrangements were or should have been. And it is very difficult to identity corruption.
“Better record keeping, in my opinion, would identify more corruption.”
He said its culture needed to be overhauled.
“I think one of the significant problems in health the arrangements have grown up over a number of years which are not in the public interest but are pursued because they are the (deals),” he said.
“There is too much I would have thought of ‘that’s always the way we have done it’-type attitude of some departments and health is one of those.”
Figures published in the annual report show ICAC’s govt budget was $15.4m.
SA Health has been in the spotlight in recent months and years both for operational concerns with overcrowding at hospital emergency departments and because of continual budget blowouts.
In a statement, Treasurer Rob Lucas said the ICAC Commissioner “has a very significant budget” that would increase to $16.5 million by 2022-23.
He added: “The Government supports the independence of the Commissioner to spend his significant budget on any evaluation or investigation he chooses. Priorities for expenditure are the responsibility of the Commissioner.
“If the Commissioner requests further funding in next year’s budget cycle, it will be considered respectfully together with all of the other competing budget bids relating to priorities such as hospitals, schools and child protection.”
Mr Lander’s outspoken statement came as he launched the first “looking back” report into the state’s state and local government sectors, published a day after his annual report was tabled in parliament.
He called for a relaxation in secrecy laws in the wake of The Advertiser’s Your Right to Know campaign and for a change in law to allow reporting of matters said under parliamentary privilege.
“The current model attempts to balance the public interest in the public knowing about this type of conduct and someone suffering reputational harm,” he said.
“It is balancing exercise. I think at the moment the balance is out of kilter and too much recognition is given to the risk of someone suffering reputational harm, rather than in the public interest knowing what my office is doing and the type of conduct my office is investigating.”
He also described as “most unfortunate” the row over public statements made by Attorney-General Vickie Chapman about one of his inquiries that triggered a police investigation into the Deputy Premier.
He declined to reveal what his views were about her public statement.
He also raised concerns that almost half of the 12500 public servants surveyed were subject to, or had witnessed, bullying.
Mr Lander said he did not believe corruption was systemic across the SA public sector though it was “plagued” by maladministration and poor conduct.