Invest more than nickels and dimes in Australia's integrity dividend
The phoney political theatre over the ASIC and Australia Post scandals is exposed by governments starving anti-corruption bodies of the resources needed to police ever-rising public spending.
All Australian jurisdictions would do well to reflect on the NSW Auditor-General’s timely report on the funding of integrity bodies. One of its principal concerns is the inherent risk of integrity bodies depending for their funding on the executive branch of government.
After all, the very focus of the work of integrity bodies is their independent scrutiny of the performance of the executive. The potential for compromising that independence is obvious and it applies especially to all key integrity agencies: the auditor-general, ombudsman and anti-corruption commissions.
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Peter Frost is a former head of the Office of Public Sector Management in the Kennett Government and a former CEO, deputy auditor-general and acting auditor-general for Victoria.
