The Government notes the own motion report by the Integrity Commission was tabled today in State Parliament.
The investigation report into Tasmanian State Service employees was undertaken in the period July 1 2011 to June 30 2014, a period which relates almost wholly to the previous Labor-Green administration.
The State Service employs over 28,000 people and is responsible for administering around $5 billion in expenditure each year, including hundreds of thousands of purchases.
The Government trusts its employees to exercise good judgment, supported by training and education and a clear accountability and reporting framework, and believes in a common-sense approach to this issue.
Furthermore, the Government is confident that its employees place a high value on proper conduct and expect the highest levels of integrity from themselves and their colleagues, and this is borne out by the results of the recent survey of the State Service.
While the Government takes any accusations of impropriety by State Servants very seriously, I note that there is no evidence to suggest that the receipt of any gift by any public servant has led to an actual or perceived bias in decision-making by those employees.
In the majority of cases the gifts and hospitality reported by the Commission amount to cups of coffee and seasonal tokens. Where more substantial undeclared gifts have been identified, it is the Government’s view that this is appropriately a matter for the relevant head of agency to deal with.
Nevertheless, the Government expects changes to be made and notes that the heads of its agencies have welcomed the opportunity to improve and strengthen their approaches to managing gifts and benefits. That’s why, following receipt of the draft report earlier this year, agency heads immediately commenced work to develop a stronger and clearer whole-of-service approach, and the Government is acting on all five recommendations of the report.
Will Hodgman, Premier
