Australia needs a well-resourced anti-corruption agency, says Quaedvlieg

Former Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg referred up to 50 public servants to the nation’s small corruption watchdog only to be told by the agency that it lacked the resources to investigate.

Fairfax Media can also reveal that Mr Quaedvlieg and Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo were both concerned about the capacity of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity to support the anti-corruption sweep the pair championed between 2014 and 2017.

Head of border Roman Quaedvlieg, right, and, left, secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Michael Pezzullo.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Quaedvlieg said he and Mr Pezzullo had “a number of conversations with [ACLEI] Commissioner Michael Griffin who had started complaining about lack of resourcing and his inability to fund all the cases we were referring with him”.

“[Mr Griffin] came to us one year and asked us for more money and we said it is a matter you need to take up with your minister. We are not your budget source,” said Mr Quaedvlieg.

The cases involved serious corruption, organised crime, and the penetration by drug and tobacco traffickers particularly into Australian agencies such as Australian Border Force and the Agriculture department.

Mr Quaedvlieg said a national corruption commission was needed to deal with the infiltration of organised crime into the public sector, but warned that a new body that had the same resourcing problems as ACLEI would also fail.

“Corruption is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is an enabler for serious and organised crime. You need an effective anti-corruption agency not just with capacity but capability. ACLEI has to beg borrow and steal capability – including surveillance and phone tapping – to operate."

Fairfax Media has confirmed from a source close to Mr Pezzullo that the powerful Home Affairs chief was worried ACLEI was incapable of dealing with border security issues and, with Mr Quaedvlieg, agreed to give ACLEI $1 million out of the border security budget to help pay for its investigations.

The revelations come after Fairfax Media revealed how major ACLEI investigations, Operations Arrowhead and Operation Dureau, were compromised by inadequate resourcing and capacity.

An inquiry into a veteran border security official, Mohamed Deeb, was prematurely shelved in early 2017 after the federal police and NSW police told ACLEI it could not support an ongoing probe. Mr Deeb was allegedly facilitating the operations of an international drug trafficking syndicate with links to crime boss Bassam Hamzy.

Mr Deeb was quietly sacked from Border Force in 2017 and faced minor data access charges in August.

ACLEI has to beg borrow and steal capability – including surveillance and phone tapping – to operate.

Former Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg

Policing sources said the AFP could not support the Deeb inquiry, Operation Dureau, because it had its own priorities. Among them was a major police inquiry into allegations of financial crime by the son of top tax office official Michael Cranston.

While Mr Quaedvlieg is one of very few former agency heads to publicly speak out about the need for a national corruption body, Fairfax Media has confirmed it has strong support among serving senior police across Australia. Police commissioners Graham Ashton from Victoria, Mick Fuller from NSW and Andrew Colvin from the AFP all lead agencies who have had to divert resources to support ACLEI probes.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Quaedvlieg has had his own dealings with ACLEI. He was sacked as ABF Commissioner in March after a still unresolved ACLEI investigation into allegations he helped his girlfriend secure border force employment. Mr Quaedvlieg said he did not want to comment on ACLEI’s handling of his own matter, saying, “Others can be the judge of that”.

However, he said ACLEI "simply does not have the ability to deal with contemporary corruption which is serous and organised. If a new body involves only a label change and the capability and resources issues aren’t addressed, all you will have a national body with the same problems but across an expanded remit.

“You can’t have an anti-corruption commission needing to be reliant on borrowing resources from agencies that need their resources to deal with their own massive problems.”

Under independent MP Cath McGowan's proposed National Integrity Commission, federal politicians and public servants could be coerced into appearing before public or secret hearings as part of anti-corruption investigations.

The Commission, which is supported in-principle by Labor and other crossbench MPs, would have the power to conduct retrospective investigations, and a dedicated commissioner to look after the interests of whisteblowers.

To ease concerns among federal MPs made nervous by the ferocity of the NSW ICAC, Ms McGowan's proposal would have a parliamentary integrity commissioner who would be able to provide politicians with advice about ethical and other matters involving themselves or family members.

Developed with the input of Transparency International Australia and the progressive think tank, the Australia Institute, the proposed commission would have the powers of a standing royal commission, with the ability to issue warrants for arrest and entry to private property. Federal parliament is today debating Ms McGowan's motion for a National Integrity Commission.