IBAC Insights (newsletter)

In the 2022/23 financial year we published several high-profile special reports, delivered year two of The IBAC Plan 2021–25, made enhancements to our support for witnesses, and continued to actively engage with our stakeholders from across the public sector, Victoria Police, and the community.

We delivered 157 prevention initiatives in 2022/23, which included many engagements and external forums, as well as special reports and research reports, resources, and campaigns.

This period saw us increase our emphasis on producing prevention resources for the public sector and community, because we all have a role to play in strengthening integrity in Victoria. We commenced 11 investigations and 18 preliminary inquiries into public sector corruption and police misconduct. We also completed 14 investigations and 12 preliminary inquiries, with 18 investigations and preliminary inquiries still in progress at the end of the year.

We worked hard on improving the experience of the people who report corruption and misconduct to us. The main work we did in this area was a redesign of our website and a review of the way we correspond with complainants.

In this reporting period we assessed 23 per cent more complaints than in 2020/21. Due to this increase, we did not meet our timeliness targets for complaint and notification assessments this financial year.

The wellbeing of witnesses continued to be a critical area of focus for IBAC in 2022/23 – we established a dedicated witness liaison team to ensure that we maintain regular communication with witnesses throughout the lifecycle of an operation. They work to ensure that witnesses understand the potential pathways and processes they may be subject to and are aware of the supports available to them and how to access them.

IBAC looks forward to a more certain funding base for our future with the government increasing our funding for the 2022/23 financial year. This provides IBAC with greater certainty in relation to our future funding base. This means we can continue to improve our services and increase our efforts to reduce corruption and misconduct in the public sector, local government, and Victoria Police in this financial year.

I would like to thank all of you who have come forward to report corruption and misconduct in local government, the public sector, and Victoria Police. Your bravery in coming forward helps us to reduce corruption and create a fairer state for all of us.