The ACT public service could be increasing the risk of corruption by failing to manage conflicts of interest. 

The ACT Integrity Commission has tabled its first annual report (accessible in PDF form, here). 

It says public servants often underestimate the risks of actual, potential, and perceived conflicts of interest, and overestimate how well they can manage these conflicts.

These failures increase the risk of corruption and put the reputation of the public sector at risk, the report warns. 

It also says that the lack of a requirement for public officials engaged in decision-making to declare actual or potential conflicts of interest is increasing the risk of corruption.

The commission says conflicts of interest are “poorly understood and regularly mismanaged” by the ACT public service. This is despite the Territory having a strong governance and policy framework in place.

The report calls for government agencies to make conflict of interest declarations a mandatory component of all major decision-making processes, including having public officials declare that they have no known actual or potential conflicts of interest.

The Integrity Commission only began operating on December 1, 2019, but received its first corruption report the very next day.

By June 30, 2020, the commission had received 76 corruption reports, just 22 of which were dismissed.