The ACT's integrity watchdog says it has made substantial progress in an investigation into $8.5 million worth of contracts awarded by the Canberra Institute of Technology to a "complexity and systems thinker".
In a rare update, ACT Integrity Commission chief executive Judy Lind said there have been a number of private examinations held over recent months in relation to the investigation.
The commission had to put a number of investigations on the back burner to investigate the contracts awarded to Patrick Hollingworth over a five-year period for organisation transformation.
The investigation began last June and it was the first time the commission publicly confirmed it was inspecting a matter. Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams KC told a hearing last year that 1 million documents related to the investigation needed to be examined.
"There are a couple of different investigative tranches for [the CIT investigation]. The commissioner is considering what he calls an interim report, focusing on one aspect of that particular matter," Ms Lind said.
Ms Lind provided the update into the CIT investigation as part of an interview about the work of the ACT Integrity Commission.
The commission, which was established in 2019, is currently undertaking 12 full corruption investigations.
The commission has also publicly confirmed it is undertaking an investigation into the procurement for the construction of an expansion of Campbell Primary School after the Auditor-General found the process lacked probity.
There is also an investigation into an alleged privacy breach within Canberra Health Services where staff have been accused of leaking patient records from Dhulwa Mental Health Unit to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
Over the three years, the commission has released only three investigation reports. But this is expected to change, with Ms Lind indicating a number of reports will be handed down over the next year.
"I think, this year and 2023-24, I think is a year when the rubber will really hit the road in terms of us really understanding and bedding down those processes, speeding them up [and] being very deliberate about what the focus of the investigation is," she said.
Ms Lind said the average time for investigations from commissions around the country ranges from two to six years.
"[Investigations] need to be done well and properly. The investigation is a nonlinear process so the investigation can move off in different directions that you didn't initially anticipate," she said.
Ms Lind started in the role six last August.
This financial year alone the commission has received more than 125 reports of corruption.
Assessing these reports can take some time and the commission receives a number of reports from "aggrieved citizens" and these reports do not include any evidence of corruption.
"The actual number of reports received doesn't really properly communicate the process of dealing with the aggrieved citizen category," Ms Lind said.
"Our timeliness of assessing reports is not where it needs to be. It's too long, there's no question about that."
There have also been issues with staffing at the commission. There are 25 staff now working at the commission but this number was only reached in the past fortnight.
Ms Lind said this would finally allow the commission to start examining its backlog of cases.
"From my perspective and understanding and reflection it's probably been a pretty difficult gestation period, I think, for the commission," she said.
"[Twenty-five] is the highest level of actual staffing that the commission has ever had and in my view it reflects what I'd consider to be the minimum critical mass, the absolute bare minimum to start plowing through backlogs."
The commission has been asking the ACT government for telephone intercept powers over the past few years.
Ms Lind said the commission had in-principle approval from the federal Attorney-General to be given access to telecommunications data and stored communications but this has not yet happened for interception powers.
The commission has the ability to hold public hearings but has not yet done so. Mr Adams indicated last year there could be public hearings related to the CIT investigation.
Ms Lind said this would depend on the nature of the findings from the private examinations and whether it would be in the public interest to have these known to the public.
"The commissioner is considering once we finalise the process of gathering testimony from the private hearing setting based on the nature of the allegations and what we know at this point in time is there a public interest in then exposing or having a public hearing that exposes those issues and questions and enables members of the public to hear directly for themselves," she said.
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