Victorian Corruption Commission's damning report on Andrews government corruption
Wednesday, 19 April 2023
The special report on IBAC’s Operation Daintree found that in October 2018, the then Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) entered into a $1.2 million contract with the Health Education Federation (HEF) – a recently established entity linked to the Health Workers Union (HWU) – to provide occupational violence and aggression training to health workers.
Operation Daintree uncovered that DHHS did not conduct a competitive process before awarding the contract to the HEF and a senior advisor to the Minister for Health had improperly influenced the awarding of the contract to the HEF.
IBAC Acting Commissioner Stephen Farrow said that IBAC’s Operation Daintree revealed breaches of duties and obligations of ministers, ministerial advisors and senior public servants.
“Our investigation showed that the HWU was given privileged access and favourable treatment in its access to ministerial offices. The proposal from HEF raised a conflict between the government's interest in procuring the most suitable supplier for the training and the governing party's interest in assisting an affiliated union. This conflict of interest was not properly managed or declared.
“Advisors in the Premier’s Private Office and the Minister for Health’s office also interfered in the management of the HEF contract to obstruct consideration of its termination and to ensure it continued.
“The DHHS awarded the contract to HEF without a competitive procurement process due to senior staff in the department believing it was the minister’s and government’s preference, and because of ongoing pressure from both the Minister for Health’s advisor and Secretary of the union.
“This conduct by senior public servants falls short of the required Victorian public sector standards,” Acting Commissioner Farrow said.
As a result of Operation Daintree, IBAC has made 17 recommendations to ensure, among other things, that ministers have a clear understanding of their obligations and accountability for the management of ministerial staff, and the role of ministerial advisors is more transparent and accountable.
“IBAC has recommended the Victorian Government report to Parliament on the action taken in response to these recommendations by 31 October 2023, with a further report on those actions by 30 June 2024. We will follow up with all key stakeholders to monitor adoption of these recommendations to address the risks identified in IBAC’s investigation,” Acting Commissioner Farrow said.
For a detailed list of the recommendations and to read the special report visit www.ibac.vic.gov.au
Media contact: [email protected] or 0427 480 840
About IBAC
IBAC is Victoria's agency responsible for preventing and exposing public sector corruption and police misconduct. To report corruption or misconduct now, visit www.ibac.vic.gov.au/report or call 1300 735 135.
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Operation Daintree was an investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) highlighting how improper influence compromised the procurement process for a $1.2m contract awarded to a union-established training group, and compromised the management of the contract.
On 30 May 2019, IBAC received a complaint from an anonymous source alleging that the procurement process and awarding of a contract by the then Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to the Health Education Federation (HEF) for the provision of training to health workers in November 2018 constituted serious corrupt conduct. It was alleged that:
- Although the contract value was more than $1 million, a competitive procurement process had not been followed.
- The project was awarded to a single provider, HEF, which:
- was newly formed and had no relevant experience
- at the time of engagement was not a registered training organisation
- was not financially established and thereby posed a risk of non-delivery
- did not have sound governance arrangements - had directors who held executive positions at the Health Workers Union (HWU).
- HEF was not on the approved training register and would have been unlikely to qualify for inclusion.
- A partial upfront payment was approved prior to delivery of any training despite the finance division of DHHS advising against this.
IBAC initially referred the matter to the Victorian Ombudsman (VO) for investigation because the allegations fell below IBAC’s threshold for investigation. In November 2019, the VO notified IBAC that an investigation had identified evidence of pressure exerted on DHHS staff to award the contract to HEF, which raised reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct by a number of ministers and ministerial staff. IBAC then commenced the Operation Daintree investigation.