Question Without Notice No. 291 asked in the Legislative Council on 8 May 2018 by Hon Michael Mischin
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS — CONFISCATION OF PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACCOUNT
291. Hon MICHAEL MISCHIN to the Leader of the House representing the Attorney General:
I refer to the Auditor General's fifth report of May 2018 titled ''Confiscation of Proceeds of Crime'', and in particular the reference on page 18 where the Auditor General notes that the Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia will receive $21.2 million over four years, from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021, out of the confiscation of proceeds account.
(1) Why is the current funding agreement dated 13 September 2017 ''silent on what the DPP is to achieve'' and, unlike previous agreements, why does it fail to prescribe how its funding is to be used or ''any other requirement''?
(2) I ask that the Attorney General table the agreement and the immediate previous agreement and explain why the current agreement is dated almost two and a half months after the commencement of the period of funding it is meant to cover.
(3) Does the Attorney General accept the recommendations at page 9 of the report; and, if so, when will he act upon them; and, if not, why not?
(4) I ask that the Attorney General explain how much of its funding out of the account he expects the DPP to use for its confiscations practice and how much for operational activities not directly related to confiscations.
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) The agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions clearly specifies key performance indicators and the funding is used in accordance with the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1991.
(2) The amount of funding provided from the proceeds of crime account to the office of the DPP and the level of expenditure is clearly provided in the budget papers. I refer the member to pages 456 and 460 of volume 2 of the 2017–2018 budget papers. With regard to the commencement of the agreement, the funding for the office of the DPP from the confiscation proceeds account is paid quarterly in arrears.
(3) The Attorney General is still considering the Auditor General's recommendations, although the member may care to note that the agreement was developed with the assistance of the State Solicitor's Office and the Department of Treasury.
(4) All the funding provided from the proceeds of crime account to the office of the DPP is for the use of the confiscations unit and for prosecutions that relate to confiscations. I note that the relevant pages of the budget papers are attached to the answer and I table that document.
[See paper 1324.]