Conflicts of interest while hiring the highest paid staff in the state service have been uncovered by the Auditor-General.
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In a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, Auditor-General Rod Whitehead lashed four key state agencies for failing to clamp down on conflicts of interest and ‘inadequate’ procedures while they were hiring highly paid staff.
Mr Whitehead said he and the Integrity Commission had previously recommended the departments avoid conflicts of interest while hiring staff, and that they should ensure panel members knew what was required when hiring.
But he said the departments had not carried out the recommendations, nor had they all adopted good practice. He also found some agencies had broken the law.
Mr Whitehead said the agencies could not “always demonstrate recruitment and selection processes had integrity, were equitable and fair and involved an objective assessment of the merit of all eligible candidates.”
He gave an example where a senior executive service vacancy came up and wasn’t filled for three months. A staff member then took it on in an acting role for 18 months at higher pay. However the department should have asked for expressions of interest after six months, and the person acting should have finished after 12 months.
When the department did ask for expressions of interest, it was open for three days and the person acting the role was the only applicant, and was not interviewed.
Two years after the role became vacant, the department advertised the position and the person who had been acting in the role got the job.
In another case, the Auditor-General described how two candidates for an executive role had the same scores after the interviews. One of them was in an acting role at the time and was eventually appointed.
But a panel member had a conflict of interest over the successful candidate and didn’t mention it. Two other key reports in the hiring process either didn’t exist or were not properly recorded.
Since the audit, the department heads and deputy heads have gone to ‘unconscious bias’ workshops aimed at teaching them how to better hire staff based on merit, equity and fairness, transparency and integrity.
Mr Whitehead made eight recommendations to the departments in the 2015-16 review, which covered:
- Premier and Cabinet
- Health and Human Services
- Police, Fire and Emergency Management
- Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment
The roles covered positions paid from $150,000 to $250,000. At the time of the audit in 2016, there were 183 senior executives and about 60 staff in high bands, some of whom earned more than the senior executives.