CCC report: ‘Governance failures allowed corruption to flourish’ at Ipswich Council

THE state’s corruption watchdog has released a damning report detailing the “significant governance failures and cultural issues” that allegedly enabled corruption to flourish in Ipswich.

THE state’s corruption watchdog has released a damning report detailing the “significant governance failures and cultural issues” that allegedly enabled corruption to flourish in Ipswich.

It release comes a week ahead of new legislation going before State Parliament on Tuesday to sack Ipswich City councillors in the wake of a corruption probe that has seen 15 people charged.

Seven of those charged were either current or former employees or councillors.

CCC boss Alan MacSporran says in the report that Ipswich ratepayers were “not well served by council members they had elected and employees whose salaries they paid.”

He said the CCC had found evidence of “a wide spectrum of governance and integrity failures, from inappropriate workplace interactions and consistent breaches of policy to evidence of serious criminal offences, including official corruption.”

Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission boss Alan MacSporran says in the report that Ipswich ratepayers were “not well served by council members they had elected and employees whose salaries they paid.” Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Examples of issues identified in the report include a lack of oversight and accountability for expenditure and public resources, use of mechanisms which allowed avoidance of scrutiny of actions and requests for information under the Right to Information, inappropriate relationships between the Council and the private sector, in particular property developers and contractors, and improper use of power and influence for personal benefit.”

Contributing factors included the influence of a “very dominating senior figure,” a small group of people who had worked together for a number of years, along with weak and ambiguous policies.

Council policies were either not followed, or were ignored or circumvented, including by councillors and senior executive employees, resulting in the misuse of council funds and assets, the report says.

The CCC also found councillors and senior executive employees used personal email accounts to send and receive confidential emails relating to council business.

“It was also identified that senior members of Ipswich City Council attempted to circumvent scrutiny and RTI processes by avoiding the use of other internal communication systems,” it states.

The CCC also took aim at the running of council-owned private companies, finding financial reports to council on their operation “did not contain detailed or specific information to justify the level of expenditure,” despite their directors including serving councillors and senior council executives.

“Lack of oversight of expenditure by Ipswich City Council owned companies allowed senior members of the council to circumvent council processes and allegedly use council funds at their own discretion for questionable purposes,” the report says.

The The CCC was directed to produce the report, entitled “Culture and Corruption Risks in Local Government: Lessons from the investigation into Ipswich City Council,” by a parliamentary committee on August 8.

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe slammed the findings in the CCC’s report as shocking.

“The report identifies a wide spectrum of serious governance and integrity failures that make absolutely shocking reading,” he said in a statement.

“Suspected official corruption, improper use of power and influence for personal benefit and a lack of accountability for public resources – these are extremely disturbing findings.

“It concerns me greatly that honest, hard-working staff have been adversely impacted by this unacceptable behaviour along with local businesses and the Ipswich economy.

“Staff who wanted to report corrupt behaviour feared losing their jobs or the prospect of having their careers ruined just for doing the right thing.

“As Local Government Minister, I can’t ignore the clear evidence of widespread wrongdoing at the highest levels of Council.

“I will carefully consider this report and its recommendations and continue to progress our Local Government reforms, which aim to make all Queensland councils more accountable while supporting the vast majority of Councillors who are doing the right thing by their communities.”

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington called on the Palaszczuk Gopvernment to adopt all the CCC’s recommendations.

“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to adopt all four recommendations from the CCC’s report.

“We have now have 15 people facing 86 charges and serious action needs to be taken.

“Labor talks about integrity but has turned a blind eye to alleged corruption in its own backyard.”