Department of Justice investigation into public servant's hiring of 17yo relative deemed 'inadequate'

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2 days ago

An investigation into allegations a senior public servant hired a family member and allowed them to skip the queue for government-funded housing was "wholly inadequate", according to the man tasked with overseeing WA's corruption watchdog.
In an episode that raised questions about how serious corruption and misconduct allegations are handled in the state, the employee's teenage relative was given a three-bedroom home in regional WA, seemingly bypassing a waiting list.
But, as outlined in the report tabled in parliament by the Parliamentary Inspector of the Corruption and Crime Commission Matthew Zilko, those allegations were "simply never investigated" and so no-one involved had been subject to a finding of serious misconduct.
The report said the allegation of wrongdoing first came to light from an anonymous report in July 2023, which said a "very senior public servant on a regional placement" within Department of Justice, had appointed a 17-year-old family member "to an administrative position without declaring a conflict of interest".
Neither the public servant nor their relative was identified in the report.
That initial three-month appointment was extended twice before the recent high school graduate was made permanent, according to the report.
The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) was notified and formed a "reasonable suspicion of serious misconduct", Mr Zilko said, but allowed the department to investigate the allegation itself because it said it had already begun its own investigation.
But Mr Zilko said once that probe was completed, it was so substandard it suggested the Justice Department had "insufficient regard" for its legal obligations.
In part that was because the department's investigation also uncovered that the public servant had allocated the relative a three-bedroom government-funded home which "was ordinarily reserved for families", seemingly skipping a waiting list for that housing, according to the report.
Despite those allegations, Mr Zilko's report said the department's investigation was "limited" because it treated the issue as a "disciplinary matter" focused only on the public servant not declaring a conflict of interest.
"Most damningly, whether through inexperience, incompetence or obtuseness, the department never addressed the allegation that [the public servant] had acted corruptly," he wrote.
Shadow Corrective Services Minister Adam Hort said the department's actions did not pass the pub test.
"These are such serious allegations that the community would expect that at the very least there would be a thorough investigation, if not significant consequences for the person at the end of that investigation," he said.
The Justice department declined to comment on whether the senior employee was still employed by the department or if their relative remained in the government house.
In response to the parliamentary inspector, Justice Director General Kylie Maj conceded "the investigation wasn't conducted as well as it might have been", according to the report, but declined to reopen the case because of the department's interpretation of public sector rules.
Ms Maj said she was convinced improvements underway to the department's internal disciplinary process meant "if a similar situation were to arise in the future, the investigation would be handled in a much more satisfactory manner", the report notes.
"That is reassuring, of course, but it does not address the current problem of [the senior employee's] behaviour not being properly investigated and [their relative] remaining in accommodation subsidised by the taxpayer which was intended for families on the housing waiting list."
A Justice department spokesperson did not answer a question about what changes had been made, only saying it takes allegations of misconduct "seriously" and it was confident future investigations would be handled appropriately.
A spokesperson for the Public Sector Commission, which is responsible for misconduct prevention and education, said the commission had accepted the inspector's recommendation to write to the heads of all government authorities "reminding them of their obligations … and the importance of ensuring allegations of misconduct are investigated properly".
Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said he had "requested the department provide ongoing updates regarding implementation" of changes made to address the issues raised in the report.
The situation also raised questions about how the CCC handled allegations which warranted investigation, but which it does not have capacity for.
The parliamentary inspector said the issue had been a "longstanding concern" because the legislation only worked if government departments took their obligations "seriously".
"Unfortunately, this is not always the case," he wrote.
In this instance, he criticised the watchdog for not stepping in and overruling the department's decision.
"The commissioner advised that, having weighed current investigative workloads, resourcing constraints and the strategic prioritisation of serious misconduct allegations, he had decided not to investigate this allegation," Mr Zilko wrote.
"I accept that the commission's resources are not limitless, and it is generally entitled to determine its own priorities.
"Nevertheless, the department's abject failure to investigate the allegation referred to it still troubled me."
That failure also troubled the Shadow Attorney-General, Nick Goiran, who echoed the parliamentary inspector's recommendations.
"If the CCC were doing the job the way that they should be, it wouldn't come to this," he said.
"But in the absence of them doing that, in the absence of them then changing their approach after it's been drawn to their attention, what else can the parliamentary inspector do but publish a report like this and say we then need to beef up the legislation?"
He called on Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on the CCC to consider Mr Zilko's recommendations as its first matter of business.
It is understood that committee will meet for the first time next week.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Tony Buti said he would "review the report and consider its findings".
The Corruption and Crime Commission declined to comment.