Corruption and Crime Commission

Corruption and Crime Commission

Commission overview
Formed	1 January 2004
Jurisdiction	Western Australia
Headquarters	45 Francis Street, Northbridge
Employees	125[1]
Commission executive	John McKechnie, KC, Commissioner
Website	ccc.wa.gov.au

The Corruption and Crime Commission is an independent anti-corruption integrity agency established on 1 January 2004 to improve the integrity of the Western Australian public sector and investigate allegations of misconduct against public officers. It took over from the Anti-Corruption Commission and has jurisdiction over all State Government departments, instrumentalities and boards as well as universities and local governments. This includes more than 148,000 employees in 278 public authorities.^[2]

Under the Corruption and Crime Commission Act 2003, the Commission has three main functions:

1. Prevention and Education function. Involves assisting public sector agencies to prevent, identify and deal with misconduct. This is done by running educational forums and training on managing misconduct, assessing the misconduct risks of various agencies and helping agencies to better manage their misconduct risks.^[3] For example, 72 corruption prevention and education presentations and forums were delivered to almost 3,000 public officers and community members in metropolitan and regional Western Australia in 2012.^[4]
2. Misconduct function: Ensures that allegations about misconduct are appropriately investigated and dealt with. The Commission may investigate the more serious allegations itself. However, the majority are referred back to the department involved for investigation the result of which may be subject to review by the Commission.^[5]
3. Organised crime function: Involves the Commission granting Western Australian Police so-called extraordinary powers to investigate organised crime. The Commission can only grant these powers after receiving a request from Police. They include the power to compel witnesses to appear at private hearings and enhanced powers of search and arrest. However, legislation prohibits the Commission from itself investigating organised crime.^[6]

The Commission can conduct investigations into allegations of misconduct with powers that include the ability to hold private and public hearings, the use of telecommunications intercepts and surveillance devices, undertaking integrity tests, and for specialised staff to use assumed identities. Significant allegations dealt with by the Commission include fraud (particularly in regard to procurement), bribery, the failure to declare or properly manage conflicts of interest and the misuse of government credit cards. One of the Commission's biggest investigations was into the influence of lobbyists on public officers. This resulted in 11 Commission reports to the Parliament ( 2007, 2008, 2009), changes to the way in which lobbyists are required to operate in the State and investigations by Parliamentary Committees into the handling of confidential government information by Members of Parliament. As a result of the Committees’ hearings, a Member of Parliament was suspended for 21 sitting days for contempt of the Parliament. Also, other Members of Parliament and several lobbyists were found guilty of contempt of the Parliament for disclosing confidential information or giving false evidence to Parliamentary Committees. (reports 1, 2a and 2b ).

The Commission has a staff of 154 and an annual budget of $32 million^[7] (2012). It is overseen by a Parliamentary Inspector^[8] who can investigate any allegation against Commission officers with the power of a Royal Commissioner. A Joint Standing Committee^[9] consisting of Members of Parliament from both houses and both the main parties of the Parliament also oversight the Commission. The Commission is headed by former District Court Judge, Commissioner Roger Macknay QC. Previous Commissioners have been former Court of Appeal Judge, Len Roberts-Smith RFD QC, and the former Chief Judge of the District Court, Kevin Hammond.