Integrity Commission investigation uncovers misconduct around recruitment at Tasmanian council
Following a 2021 complaint to the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, an investigation has exposed misconduct at a Tasmanian council. DETAILS >>
Tasmania
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An investigation has revealed that senior officers at an unnamed Tasmanian council appointed eight individuals to positions without following proper recruitment processes and ensuring that conflicts of interest had been disclosed.
The Integrity Commission launched its investigation following a 2021 complaint about alleged misconduct in the recruitment of eight staff members at the council.
A total of 15 allegations of misconduct related to the appointments were probed through Investigation Smithies, with the commission finding that there were no selection reports or documentation to show why the eight appointees were the best people for the job based on merit.
It also found that past and present professional relationships led to bias and “different treatment of applicants”, sometimes favourably and sometimes unfavourably.
There was also no documentation of the reasoning behind the use of a direct appointment process – where roles are not advertised internally or externally – instead of an open and competitive process.
The report on systemic misconduct risks in recruiting local government employees was tabled in state parliament on Tuesday but the misconduct investigation is being kept under wraps and the council in question is not being identified after the board of the commission determined that doing so would not be in the public interest.
The commission’s report on misconduct risks made two recommendations to the state government.
The first was for the Local Government Minister to develop a model recruitment policy for councils and the second was for the Local Government Act to be amended to reintroduce a provision requiring councils to appoint employees based on merit, which Integrity Commission CEO Michael Easton said had been “inadvertently” removed from the legislation in 2005.
The report also concluded that it was probable that these misconduct risks were not isolated to the one council.
The Office of Local Government has indicated it supports the intent of the commission’s recommendations but it will be a decision for the minister and cabinet as to whether they are implemented.
“As senior officers, I would expect the people involved [in the misconduct] to firstly understand the requirement for merit in recruitment, I would expect those people to understand the processes involved and I would expect them certainly to be declaring conflicts of interest and having those assessed and managed where required,” Mr Easton said.
Local Government Association of Tasmania CEO Dion Lester said the peak body supported the idea of a model recruitment policy for the sector but did not believe there was an “immediate need” for the merit provision to be reintroduced into the act.
However, he added that there was “no harm in reintroducing provisions to support this, should the government determine that it is appropriate”.
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