This draft commitment for Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan reads:
"Australia will strengthen our ability to prevent, detect and respond to bribery and corruption. As part of this, we will regularly review the jurisdiction and capabilities of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Australian Federal Police’s Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre to ensure they can focus on protecting Commonwealth agencies from risks of corruption.
Status Quo
The Government takes a multi-faceted, multi-agency approach to combating corruption, under which a range of agencies play a role in preventing, detecting and responding to corruption. We have strong laws applying to bribery and corruption which carry significant penalties.
ACLEI is responsible for preventing, detecting and investigating serious issues of corruption in agencies within its jurisdiction. ACLEI’s jurisdiction focusses on protecting environments that are most at risk of criminal compromise—namely, border regulation and law enforcement.
The Integrity Commissioner considers the nature and scope of corruption revealed by investigations, and reports annually on any patterns and trends in corruption in Australian Government law enforcement and other government agencies which have law enforcement functions. Accordingly, ACLEI collects intelligence about corruption in support of the Integrity Commissioner’s functions.
ACLEI also aims to understand corruption and prevent it. Where the Integrity Commissioner identifies laws of the Commonwealth or administrative practices of government agencies that might contribute to corrupt practices or prevent their early detection, he or she may make recommendations for these laws or practices to be changed.....
[....]
To aim to improve Australia’s score on Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.
To regularly review the jurisdiction and capabilities of ACLEI and FACC, and extend these on an as-needs basis.
To consult closely with industry, non-government organisations and the public to ensure that our law, policies and frameworks for responding to corruption are effective, including through holding the first government business roundtable on corruption in 2017. We will also consult publicly on the implementation of recommendations from the Statutory Review of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 and associated Rules and Regulations.
To ensure that our laws applying to the bribery of foreign public officials facilitate effective prosecution.
To assess whether a deferred prosecution agreement scheme would facilitate more effective and efficient responses to bribery and corporate corruption by encouraging companies to self-report."
Read the full draft commitment here:
https://ogpau.govspace.gov.au/draft-national-action-plan/commitments/theme-4-integrity-in-the-public-sector/4-2-national-integrity-framework/Give your feedback below before Friday 5pm Nov 18th AEDT. We’ll publish it at
https://opengovernment.org.au/national-integrity-framework and send it to Australia’s Open Government Partnership Interim Working Group. They'll meet to consider all the feedback shortly after the consultation period, and make recommendations to the Government. The final decision rests with Cabinet.
We'll let you know about any developments with this commitment and Australia’s Open Government National Action Plan. We wont share your email address with anyone else.
