Integrity commissioner offers to act in role during transition

Outgoing Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov has offered to act in the role if required after she leaves the job.

Outgoing Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov has offered to act in her former role if required after she leaves the job, according to her resignation letter.

Dr Stepanov told Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk she would be “very willing” to accept such an appointment, as had been offered to former integrity commissioners, “should the Government form a view that my ongoing expertise and contribution would be in the public interest”.

Dr Stepanov is due to leave the job for the private sector in July.

A copy of the letter was released on the Integrity Commission’s website after Ms Palaszczuk partially read from it in parliament this morning.

Dr Stepanov said she noted the strategic review into her office – which recommends a raft of changes, including that it be made independent of the Public Service Commission – would result in “substantial changes” to the office if accepted.

“I am well placed to assist the incoming commissioner and office during any such changes,” she wrote.

Dr Stepanov’s letter reveals she was also flexible about her end date, offering to stay on until after the Estimates process – which is a parliamentary hearing which allows opposition and government MPs to ask pertinent questions of the Government and its senior office holders.

Dr Stepanov took the opportunity to again raise the “unprecedented growth and change” in the workload of her office.

“In this regard, throughout my tenure as integrity commissioner, the activity and profile of the office has been tremendously heightened,” she said.

Integrity Commissioner Dr Nikola Stepanov. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Over the previous four and a half years, I have provided advice on ethics, integrity, and interest matters (both written and oral) on 954 occasions, and advice on lobbying matters on a further 92 occasions.

“By comparison, over the course of 17 years from the establishment of the role of integrity commissioner, my four predecessors provided advice on ethics, integrity, and interest matters on a total of 573 occasions.”

She said it was a credit to Ms Palaszczuk that the standards that applied to ministers and assistant ministers were of the highest calibre in terms of ethics and integrity.

“Whilst I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with advisers in the pursuit of good governance, and the opportunity to work with the lobbying industry and other key stakeholders in the integrity sphere, in my view the completion of the review signalled the start of what ought to be a new chapter for the office of integrity commissioner,” she wrote.

Dr Stepanov’s resignation triggered revelations around a raft of integrity concerns relating to her office and other integrity offices, including claims of interference in their statutory jobs by senior public servants.

That included the PSC’s removal and wiping of a laptop from Dr Stepanov’s office, without her knowledge, which was later referred to the CCC.

The laptop had been at the centre of concerns relating to the misuse of confidential documents relating to conflicts of interest held by ministers and the state’s most senior public servants.

Dr Stepanov had requested authority from the PSC to have it forensically investigated, but it was not granted.

The Courier-Mail also revealed Ms Palaszczuk had referred Dr Stepanov to the parliament’s Economic and Governance Committee over historic claims of credit card misuse and unspecified bullying claims, which had already been dismissed by the CCC.

The committee determined not to investigate.