National Integrity Framework (AU0012)

Objective and description: Australia will strengthen its ability to prevent, detect and respond to corruption in the public sector. We will do this in collaboration with the corporate sector, non-government organisations, academia and the public, including by holding the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption in 2017. We will review the jurisdiction and capabilities of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FACC) with the development of each National Action Plan to ensure they can focus on protecting Commonwealth agencies from risks of corruption. Status Quo: The Australian Government takes tackling corruption seriously. We have strong laws and a robust, multi-agency approach to combating corruption, under which a range of agencies play a role in preventing, detecting and responding to corruption (an approach the Government believes is preferable to creating an entirely new anti-corruption agency). Key agencies responsible for responding to public sector corruption include: ACLEI, which is responsible for preventing, detecting and investigating corruption within the high-risk agencies within its jurisdiction. The AFP-hosted FACC, which brings together a range of Commonwealth agencies to respond to serious fraud and corruption matters, including across Commonwealth services, programmes and employees. The Government provided an additional $15 million to the FACC in April 2016. In 2012, Australia was found fully compliant following a review of our implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Our next review under UNCAC is scheduled to occur in 2017-18. ACLEI’s jurisdiction was reviewed earlier this year by the Joint Committee on the ACLEI. The Committee recommended the Government extend ACLEI’s jurisdiction to include the entire Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, and examine the feasibility of including the Australian Taxation Office. The Government is considering the recommendations. Ambition: To aim to improve Australia’s score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index by strengthening the Australian Government’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to bribery and corruption, and better communicating our national integrity framework. To achieve this, we will consult closely with industry, non-government organisations, academia and the public to ensure that our laws, policies and frameworks for responding to corruption are effective, including through holding the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption in 2017. We will strengthen the national integrity framework as it applies to the public sector. This will include reviewing the jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC every two years with the development of Australia’s National Action Plans under OGP, and extending these on an as-needs basis. We will also improve whistle-blower protections (see commitment 1.1). Relevance: This commitment will advance the OGP values of public accountability by: improving the effectiveness of our legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks; and protecting the integrity and transparency of the execution of public policy and management. COMMITMENT DETAILS; OGP Grand Challenge: Increasing Public Integrity; Timeframes 2016 – July 2018; Lead agency Attorney-General’s Department (anticorruption@ag.gov.au); Other actors involved; Government: ACLEI, Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Non-government: Industry, peak bodies (including Law Council of Australia) non-government organisations (including Australian Open Government Partnership Network) and international partners

12. National Integrity Framework

Commitment Text:

Australia will strengthen its ability to prevent, detect and respond to corruption in the public sector.

We will do this in collaboration with the corporate sector, non-government organisations, academia and the public, including by holding the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption in 2017.

We will review the jurisdiction and capabilities of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FACC) with the development of each National Action Plan to ensure they can focus on protecting Commonwealth agencies from risks of corruption.

[…]

Milestones:

1. Respond to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ACLEI’s inquiry into the jurisdiction of ACLEI.
2. Hold the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption, to improve cooperation and consultation on anti-corruption work, and identify areas for reform.
3. Respond to recommendations for reform and improvement arising from the Roundtable.
4. Review the jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC in consultation with the public in the context of developing Australia’s second National Action Plan.

Responsible institution: Attorney-General’s Department

Supporting institution(s): ACLEI, Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. See the national action plan for a full list.

Start date: 2016 End date: July 2018

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text, see the Australia National Action Plan available at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Australia_NAP_201...

Context and Objectives

This commitment seeks to reduce corruption in the Commonwealth public sector. The government has committed to responding to previous recommendations and conducting a review of bodies that currently have investigation and enforcement powers in this area, as well as consulting with business over other steps that can be taken.

All Australian States and the Northern Territory have a broad based anti-corruption agency which has jurisdiction over public officials, has coercive powers, is overseen by a Parliamentary committee, and mostly has investigative, preventative and educational functions.[1] A key theme in their establishment has been to combat the practice or perception of corruption as a way to restore and maintain public trust in government institutions.

Public sector corruption at the Commonwealth level is regulated through a 'Multi-agency framework'.[2] These include at least eight different agencies, from the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), which monitors other law enforcement agencies including the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the immigration and customs officials; to the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FACC), led by the AFP, which includes officials from a number of law enforcement agencies in an effort to coordinate and provide specialised expertise to tackle complex fraud and corruption. The Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet (PM&C) is also involved in addressing corruption risks through applying the Ministerial Code of Conduct and the Lobbying Code of Conduct.

In its interim report, the Senate Select Committee on a National Integrity Commission identified major concerns regarding the adequacy of the current system at the Commonwealth level: It should not be assumed that the Commonwealth public sector is less prone to corruption; that there has been several high-profile instances of corruption; and that the multi-agency approach has its flaws including uncoordinated development, fragmentary and ill-defined nature, and a lack of resources.[3] The Senate Select Committee also concluded that the current framework resulted in a 'complex and poorly understood system that can be opaque, difficult to access and challenging to navigate, particularly for complainants unfamiliar with the Commonwealth public sector and its processes more broadly.'[4] It recommended that the framework be strengthened to make it more coherent, comprehensible and accessible, and that consideration be given to establishing a new commonwealth agency with broad scope and jurisdiction to address integrity and corruption matters.[5]

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the ACLEI, in its 2016 inquiry into the jurisdiction of the ACLEI recommended extending ACLEI’s jurisdiction to include the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, holding an independent assessment of the Australian Taxation Office within ACLEI’s jurisdiction, and considering transferring responsibility for the assessment of maritime and aviation identification cards to an agency within ACLEI’s jurisdiction. However, the Joint Committee did not recommend any wholesale increase in ACLEI’s jurisdiction, preferring ACLEI’s current focus on agencies with law enforcement functions.[6]

The commitment in milestones 12.1 and 12.4 relate to reforming the jurisdiction of the ACLEI and FACC. They are of medium specificity given they will involve government responding to each of the recommendations of the Joint Committee and conducting a review to consider further changes. Implementing the recommendations is likely to involve extending the jurisdiction of ACLEI, improving the degree of oversight or potential to investigate corruption within the government agencies involved. It is not clear what form any further review might take. In submissions to the various Senate and Joint Committees and in interviews for this report, Transparency International Australia were critical of the limited impact of the recommendations of the Joint Committee and advocated for any further review to consider the details of the establishment of a federal anti-corruption agency.[7]

Milestones 12.2 provides for the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption. It does not provide information about what form the roundtable will take, who will take part in the discussion or the scope of considerations. Milestone 12.3 provides for a response to the recommendations of the roundtable without any details on what form the response might take. These are therefore of low specificity. In interviews in preparing this report, it was considered that the roundtable discussions were likely to be of more relevance to Commitment 1.4 and regulation of corrupt conduct by corporations than to regulating public sector corruption at the federal level in Australia.[8] In the context of reforming the institutions involved with regulating public sector corruption in Australia these milestones were likely to have only minor potential impact.

Completion

Milestone 12.1: This milestone is delayed and with no evidence of more than limited progress being publically available as of 1 July 2017. At the time of writing, the government has not responded to the Joint Committee Report. Interviews with the Attorney General’s Department indicate that the delay is in part due to the need to resolve the implications for the jurisdiction of ACLEI associated with the creation of a new Home Affairs portfolio combining Australia’s immigration, border protection and domestic security agencies.[9]

Milestone 12.2: This milestone was fully implemented. The Government Business Roundtable was held on 31 March 2017. Interviews with participants in the roundtables considered that they were focused on industry groups and private sector views, but did include broader civil society representatives.[10] Greg Thompson from Transparency International, considered that the roundtable was primarily focused on regulation of the non-government sector.[11] The wide range of different initiatives around corruption meant that it was difficult for CSOs with an interest in this area to effectively engage in all aspects of the consultation. The fragmentation made it difficult to establish priorities and to ensure the coherence of the various measures was being maintained.

Milestone 12.3: This milestone was not completed during the period of implementation reported on in this report. There was no evidence of more than limited progress being publicly available as of the end of August 2017 as set out in the timeframe for the milestone. No feedback or other results from the roundtable have been made public. The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2017, which includes amendments to address bribery of foreign officials and introduction of a deferred prosecution agreement scheme that were discussed at the Roundtables, was introduced into Parliament on 6 December 2017. This Bill will be discussed further in the end-of-term report.

Milestone12.4: The general review of the jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC had not formally commenced at the time of writing.

Early Results (if any)

There were no early results available during the implementation period reviewed by this report.

Next Steps

In fulfilment of milestone 12.2, government should consider making public the recommendations from the roundtable discussions and the government response combined with the various elements of commitment 4 in consulting further on anti-corruption measures involving corporate regulation. The general review of ACLEI and FACC could be expanded in the next national action plan to encompass a collaborative approach to investigating the establishment of a single federal anti-corruption agency with a broad based jurisdiction.

Commitment 12. National Integrity Framework

Commitment Text:

Australia will strengthen its ability to prevent, detect and respond to corruption in the public sector. We will do this in collaboration with the corporate sector, non-government organisations, academia and the public, including by holding the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption in 2017.

We will review the jurisdiction and capabilities of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FACC) with the development of each National Action Plan to ensure they can focus on protecting Commonwealth agencies from risks of corruption.

[…]

Milestones:

1. Respond to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ACLEI’s inquiry into the jurisdiction of ACLEI.
2. Hold the first Government Business Roundtable on Anti-Corruption, to improve cooperation and consultation on anti-corruption work, and identify areas for reform.
3. Respond to recommendations for reform and improvement arising from the Roundtable.
4. Review the jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC in consultation with the public in the context of developing Australia’s second National Action Plan.

Responsible institution: Attorney-General’s Department

Supporting institution(s): ACLEI, Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. See the national action plan for a full list.

Start date: 2016                   .                         End date: July 2018

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text, see the Australia National Action Plan available at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Australia_NAP_2016-2018_0.pdf

Commitment Aim:

This commitment sought to reduce corruption in the Commonwealth public sector by responding to previous recommendations for reform of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI)—a key anti-corruption body—and taking other steps to identify appropriate reforms. These steps included conducting a further review of ACLEI and other bodies that currently have investigation and enforcement powers in this area, and consulting with business.

Status

Midterm: Limited

Overall, this commitment was only completed to a limited degree at the midterm of the national action plan. There was no publicly available evidence relating to any government response to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ACLEI’s inquiry into the jurisdiction of ACLEI (milestone 1). A general review of ACLEI and the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre (FACC) had not started (milestone 4).

The Attorney-General’s Department held and facilitated a government business roundtable with civil society groups on 31 March 2017 to address corruption in the corporate sector (milestone 2). A government response to the recommendations arising from the roundtable was not available at the midterm (milestone 3).

End of term: Limited

Milestones 1 (respond to Parliamentary Joint Committee on ACLEI’s inquiry into the jurisdiction of ACLEI) and 4 (review of the jurisdiction of ACLEI and the AFP Fraud and Anti-Corruption – or ‘FAC’ – Centre) were not completed by the end of the action plan term. The Government announced its intention to establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) on 13 December 2018 [171] that would subsume ACLEI and complement the work of the AFP on fraud and anti-corruption and conducted a public consultation on the proposed CIC from 13 December 2018 – 1 February 2019. [172] In that announcement, the Government claimed work on the proposal for a CIC was conducted during the milestone period for milestone 4, having commenced in January 2018. [173] Mr Ken Coghill, then a member of the OGP Forum and now interim co-chair, indicated that there was ‘no discussion in the OGP Forum of any work on a Commonwealth anti-corruption agency prior to the announcement of a CIC by the government in December 2018’. [174]

Possible reforms of foreign bribery laws had been discussed at the business roundtable established under milestone 2. The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combating Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 (introduced in December 2017) responded to discussed reforms, as well as other consultations conducted in response to Commitment 4. [175] The Bill would reform the foreign bribery offence, introducing a new corporate offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery and a deferred prosecution agreement scheme. No further response or feedback from the roundtable discussions has been made public.

Did It Open Government?

Civic Participation: Marginal

Public Accountability: Did Not Change

As indicated in the terms of the commitment and discussed in the midterm report, there have been a number of recent inquiries at the parliamentary level into the integrity framework at the Commonwealth level. This commitment has, however, led to a marginal improvement in government-provided opportunities for civic participation. According to Greg Thompson, Board Member Transparency International Australia, the business roundtable presented an opportunity for representatives from both the business and civil society sectors to discuss options for addressing corruption in the corporate sector. [176] In addition, opportunities to participate in reform of the various public anti-corruption bodies at the Commonwealth level was provided outside of this commitment through the establishment of a Senate Select Committee on a National Integrity Commission, which reported in September 2017. [177]

Additionally, with the Commonwealth Integrity Commission subsuming milestones 1 and 4 to formally review jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC, there are no changes in practice to report for public accountability at the end of the action plan cycle, though the CIC will have a broader jurisdiction than ACLEI.

Carried Forward?

The second national action plan includes a commitment to strengthen the national anti-corruption framework. Under this commitment the government will continue to consider and assess options for reform of the framework, including its coverage, coherence, effectiveness, and functioning. The commitment will include analysis of significant gaps in the jurisdiction, functions, and resources of agencies involved in the current framework. The government will respond to the Senate Select Committee report, continue to engage in the development of reforms to the national integrity framework, and implement the response to the Report of the Senate Select Committee on a National Integrity Commission and any other outcomes from ongoing review of the national integrity framework. [178] There is no express commitment, however, to establish a Commonwealth integrity body or consult on its possible scope and operation.