Corruption watchdog receives 1100 nepotism claims in less than two years

The state’s corruption watchdog received more than 1100 allegations of nepotism in less than two years, with almost half of these coming from government departments and potential links to organised crime in a handful of cases.

The state’s corruption watchdog received more than 1100 allegations of nepotism in less than two years, with almost half of these coming from government departments, a newly released report has revealed.

The majority of the complaints were related to either recruitment or selection activities and procurement, with the Crime and Corruption Commission investigating 73 of the allegations.

Of the 1141 allegations made between July 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022 – which related to 701 complaints – 17 were substantiated, 105 weren’t substantiated, 371 required no further action while the outcome was unknown for 646.

The new figures were revealed in a report compiled by the CCC in May for the state government’s Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee and which was released on Friday.

It revealed that of the 640 allegations where a relationship was specified, 17 suggested a potential link with organised crime.

“These 17 allegations relate to subject officers; failing to take action against alleged offenders, or helping them to evade detection for an offence; giving information to alleged offenders; helping alleged offenders to obtain a job; otherwise associating with, or taking steps to protect, alleged offenders,” the report read.

The number of nepotism allegations received by the state’s corruption watchdog has sat between 6 and 9 per cent of its total allegations received since July 2020.

Prior to that, the numbers of complaints remained largely steady – with 543 received during 2016-17, 795 during 2017-18, 752 during 2018-19 and 598 in 2019-20.

Between July 2020 and March this year, 47.36 per cent of allegations were about government departments while 23 per cent were about local government.

Just under 4 per cent were about parliament and 12.68 per cent were about the Queensland Police Service.

“Exploring by sector reveals that allegations about misusing one’s authority to benefit others was most commonly related to; human resource management activities, when the subject of the allegation was from a public service department, or other public sector entity; management of public assets and resources and human resource management activities, when the subject of the allegation was from local government; law enforcement or criminal justice activities, when the subject of the allegation was from the Queensland Police Service; human resource management, when the subject of the allegation was from parliament,” the report read.

It comes after a CCC survey released last year revealed public servants had witnessed colleagues interfere in recruitment processes while others had been spotted falsifying time sheets.

According to the survey, which more than 14,000 public servants took part in, thousands of employees agreed that corruption took place in government but that there were barriers to reporting it.