IBAC Insights (newsletter)

'IBAC's engagement activities are multi-layered. They focus on highlighting corruption risks, so public sector leaders can consider how they can strengthen their systems and practices to prevent corruption and misconduct and also raising public sector employees' awareness about IBAC, our role and how they can report corruption,' Ms Kings says.

'We use a range of approaches, from regional events, to briefings, as well as programs for specific groups. For example, a new initiative of our engagement activities this year was the establishment of a Community of Practice (CoP) for Protected Disclosure Coordinators. We have held a number of events as part of the CoP which have been both well received and well attended.'

The team has delivered corruption prevention and integrity insights forums in regional Victoria during 2018 in Traralgon and Ballarat, in collaboration with the Victorian Ombudsman, the Local Government Inspectorate, and the local councils.

'When we ask attendees about their views on the most effective corruption prevention measures, education, leadership and strong organisational culture are most often cited.'

Ms Kings says another important role of the engagement team is supporting heads of public sector agencies to meet their mandatory obligation to report suspected corrupt conduct to IBAC.

'While IBAC has received many mandatory notifications from Victorian public sector agency heads since the legislation was introduced in 2016, we recognise there is more work for us to do to ensure agency heads fulfil their obligations. This will be a focus in 2019.'

'Another key aspect of the engagement team’s work is to promote the findings of IBAC's research publications. These publications are an invaluable resource, and we work to circulate the key findings widely across the Victorian public sector. This includes meeting with relevant agencies to discuss the findings and how they may use the information to strengthen their resistance to corruption.'

'For example, following the release of IBAC's report Corruption risks associated with public regulatory bodies, we have arranged meetings with a number of agencies including Energy Safe Victoria, the Victorian Building Authority, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation and Consumer Affairs Victoria, and the Commissioner for Better Regulation.'

'This is definitely a two-way process. IBAC’s engagement team use the feedback from Victorian public sector employees to inform the development of our tools and resources. As a result of feedback received we’re developing a new suite of tools and resources, for progressive roll-out in 2019.'

'Next year we’ll also be continuing our focussed engagement with the business and legal sectors. We are collaborating with Victoria Police on strengthening integrity-related education programs for all levels of the organisation, from new recruits to senior command.'

'And in 2019, IBAC will host the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference in Melbourne in late October. Planning is well underway for this major fixture of the anti-corruption calendar and the call for abstracts has just been released. We’re looking forward to announcing keynote speakers early in the new year.'