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Commonwealth Ombudsman Philippa Smith has called on agency CEOs and the Government to caution public servants about confusing their public and private interests.

'Officers must be conscious of the potential for conflicts of interest and be aware of conflicts which are within ‘arms length’ of funding or contracted out service arrangements,' Ms Smith said.

The Ombudsman highlighted several cases in her 1996-97 Annual Report, including one case involving two senior ATO auditors who lodged complaints to Ombudsman’s Office about the ATO amending their personal tax returns.

The officers had received very large tax refunds by lodging internal objections to their own private self-assessments. However, they did not appear to understand the possibility of a conflict between their stance on their tax returns, and their official duties as ATO auditors.

In another case from the annual report, the Ombudsman reported that an ATSIC regional manager had a private interest in the allocation of grant funds under his control. In this case, the regional manager was in close association with a businessman contracted by an organisation which he funded. The grants involved a total of $4.33 million.

Not only was there no express disclosure of the coincidence of interests by the regional manager, but his official files disclosed no mention of his friend’s involvement at all, for the first 12 months.

Ms Smith said public confidence in the integrity and probity of the Public Service was crucial to the proper operation of government.

'A conflict of interest or an appearance of a conflict of interest can clearly jeopardise public confidence in agencies’ use of statutory powers or expenditure of taxpayer’s money,' Ms Smith said.

Media contacts

Philippa Smith, Commonwealth Ombudsman, (02) 6276 0149

Stephen Fynmore, Director Public Affairs, (02) 6276 0123

References

Chapter 6: Conflict of interest, page 53

Case studies: ATO, page 54

DPIE and Landcare, page 55, and

ATSIC page 56

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