Watchdog savages Victorian Ombudsman

Relations between Victoria’s integrity agencies explode with release of a special report. READ THE KEY FINDINGS HERE:

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass. Photograph by Arsineh Houspian.

Simmering tensions between two integrity agencies have exploded with one watchdog accusing the other of major failings in the use of coercive powers and of displaying “pushback” and “resistance” to oversight.

The Victorian Inspectorate has claimed Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass has failed to properly resource the exercise of her agency’s key weapon and some of the compulsory interviews have been conducted in an unprofessional manner.

“Through (the report) the VI seeks to raise awareness across all integrity agencies of the standards expected by the VI in their exercise of coercive powers and to cause agencies, particularly the VO, to focus on the need to adequately resource an internal quality assurance function,” Inspector Eamonn Moran KC wrote in the foreword.

“The VI is of the view that the Ombudsman has failed to do that in her agency and that, as a result, the VI has had to raise an extensive number of issues with the VO, some repeatedly.”

The VI — which monitors seven integrity agencies, including the VO and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission — tabled the special 84-page report in parliament on Thursday.

Relations between the ombudsman and the inspectorate have deteriorated in recent years, with Ms Glass, whose ten-year term as ombudsman finishes this month, raising concerns with a parliamentary committee last year about Mr Moran’s conduct in monitoring her organisation.

Mr Moran hit back with the release of the special report on Thursday into how the VO exercised its coercive powers, which it deployed 184 times in 2022-23.

“Her evidence (to the committee) was highly critical of the value her office (VO) receives from the review of the material the VO is required by law to provide to the VI each time it exercises a coercive power,” Mr Moran wrote.

Mr Moran said the ombudsman had informed the Integrity and Oversight Committee that she felt the “current notification scheme was neither an effective nor an efficient way of overseeing its operations and that it does not consider the enquiries it receives from the VI as being ‘targeted’ or ‘proportionate’.”

Mr Eamonn Moran is the Inspector of the Victorian Inspectorate, responsible for monitoring Victoria’s integrity agencies. Source: Youtube

Mr Moran found in the 84-page report that the “Ombudsman’s comments (to the parliamentary committee) did not acknowledge that the VO is facing challenges in its ability to comply with its legislative and procedural obligations when using coercive powers”.

“The comments were also inconsistent with the VO’s private commitments to implement a range of changes that were not trivial,” the report stated.

The Australian has approached the Ombudsman’s office for comment.

The report goes on to find that “rather than trivial, many of the issues are significant, with the breadth of problems indicating that the VO has not committed sufficient resources to prevent and effectively ensure compliance”.

“There is also evidence of pushback, or resistance, to oversight.”

The VI noted in the report; “This kind of defensiveness appears to have been a factor in how the Ombudsman has engaged with us as the VO’s oversight body: where we have raised significant issues, the Ombudsman and her office have questioned the resources needed to be devoted to responding and to making improvements.”

The VI’s report stated it discovered issues at the “VO and sets out seven thematic snapshots that demonstrate issues with professionalism during some interviews, inaction on previous feedback, quality assurance failures and issues that risked the validity of the exercise of some coercive powers”.

Among the other criticisms in the report were findings that the VO had not made welfare enquiries of witnesses at the start of interviews and needed to improve “professionalism,

demeanour and body language during interviews”.

“These issues included: the level of professionalism during some interviews, including inappropriate use of language and unprofessional pausing of interviews ... issues affecting the validity of confidentiality notices” and “Inconsistencies in the VO’s delegation of its powers and functions”.

The VI’s report recommends the VO complete a review of its “quality assurance framework and resources for supporting compliance when exercising coercive powers” by March 2025.

Mr Moran defended his “small but dedicated” team of investigators in the report, saying “it was their work that was put under a spotlight by the Ombudsman”.

“I am grateful to them for the quality work that they do throughout the year. It is their work, together with that of our investigation, complaint and legal teams, that ultimately can lead to bringing about improvements to our integrity system. And that, primarily, is why the Victorian Inspectorate exists.”