A batch of referrals made to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) during its first month of operation have not yet been dealt with, details released this week reveal.
The anti-corruption watchdog still has 22 referrals made in July 2023, when the NACC was created, marked as “under assessment”. There are a further 12 referrals from August 2023 and four from September 2023 that have the same status, as per documents obtained via Australia’s freedom of information laws.
Media staff at the NACC told Crikey that the commission aimed to assess 80% of reports it receives within 90 days.
“The vast majority are completed in under 90 days. Some take longer. The time taken to assess each referral depends on a range of factors including the complexity of the referral, whether it is necessary to seek additional information, and its prioritisation relative to other referrals,” they said.
The commission also said that all referrals marked as “under assessment” aren’t necessarily dormant: out of the 22 from July 2023, two were “awaiting receipt of further information that has been requested”, while eight were the subject of preliminary investigation.
“Matters that are under preliminary investigation are still reported as ‘under assessment’,” the commission said.
Seven of the July 2023 referrals were described as “in various stages of review and finalisation”, while five were “still being assessed”.
Out of the referrals from August and September 2023, two were awaiting further information, four were under preliminary investigation, seven were being reviewed or finalised, and three were “still being assessed”.
The NACC has received criticism for a perceived lack of results, and the commission’s decision not to investigate referrals from the robodebt royal commission prompted critical media coverage and a probe by the NACC inspector.
The inspector found NACC commissioner Paul Brereton had engaged in “officer misconduct” when he failed to remove himself from the decision-making process on the robodebt referrals despite declaring a conflict of interest.
In December, the commission announced it had appointed a senior silk and former High Court justice, Geoffrey Nettle, to independently reconsider the robodebt decision.
In its first year, the NACC received 3,190 referrals and finished assessing 2,690 of them, taking an average of 89 days per referral.
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