Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov demands Public Service Commission probe

Queensland’s outgoing Integrity Commissioner, Nikola Stepanov, has backed calls for a wide-ranging investigation of the Public Service Commission.

Nikola Stepanov says ‘it is not appropriate that the PSC has authority over the budget, staff, and resources provided to support the Integrity Commissioner’. Picture: Jono Searle

Queensland’s outgoing Integrity Commissioner has backed calls for a wide-ranging probe of the Public Service Commission after making allegations of interference in her office’s role regulating lobbyists and advising MPs.

Nikola Stepanov, who tendered her resignation last week, issued a statement on Wednesday saying the Public Service Commission should be stripped of its budgetary authority over the office of the Integrity Commissioner.

Dr Stepanov’s resignation was tendered just days before Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran quit on Tuesday in the face of criticism over his running of the watchdog.

In a statement, Dr Stepanov said the close timing of her resignation and that of Mr MacSporran was coincidental, with her privately informing the Premier’s Department of her intention to leave late last year.

The Australian revealed on Monday she had resigned and that a CCC investigation was ongoing into her complaint that the PSC had seized and deleted the contents of a laptop last year from Dr Stepanov’s office.

Alan MacSporran. Picture: Domanii Cameron

Dr Stepanov was assessing allegations of unlawful political lobbying and other complaints at the time and believed information was leaking from her office.

The laptop was seized by the PSC after Dr Stepanov had for months sought financial approval from the PSC for an independent forensic examination of the device.

In her statement, she said it was critical that there is “absolute confidence that the Integrity Commissioner is able to discharge their functions without undue interference by any person or entity”.

“The Integrity Commissioner is an independent statutory officer whose functions extend well beyond the scope of the PSC,” she said.

“Given the independence and importance of the position of Integrity Commissioner, it is not appropriate that the PSC has authority over the budget, staff, and resources provided to support the Integrity Commissioner.

“The provision of financial and administrative support for the Integrity Commissioner through the PSC creates the potential for conflicts of interest to arise between the two entities’ functions.

“Further, the current governance arrangements operate in such a way as to place the Integrity Commissioner in a position of inherent vulnerability, due to dependence on the PSC exercising its considerable powers in a judicious manner.

“I understand from media reports (on Tuesday) that there have been calls for a formal review or investigation into the way that the PSC has discharged their functions and responsibilities in relation to the office of the Integrity Commissioner in recent times.

“I support that call.”

The PSC declined to comment.

Last year, Dr Stepanov’s wrote in her annual report to parliament that the number of Integrity Commission staff had been cut from four to one.

On Monday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the integrity commission was “staffed appropriately” after extra personnel had been provided.

In her annual report, Dr Stepanov wrote that she was “very concerned” about illegal lobbying in the state.

Last year, The Australian published a series about the rise of lobbyists involved in the running of both major parties’ election campaigns in Queensland state and local government politics.