Question On Notice No. 1732 asked in the Legislative Council on 1 November 2018 by Hon Jim Chown
Question Directed to the: Minister for Environment representing the Minister for Corrective Services
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to the Corruption and Crime Commission Report titled, Report into misconduct risks in WA prisons, dated 26 October 2018, and I ask:
(a) does the Department of Justice keep an electronic record, catalogue or tracking document to audit and/or manage the Department’s response and progress to implementing recommendations by bodies such as the Corruption and Crime Commission, the Office of the Auditor General, the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services and the Coroner’s Court;
(b) if no to (a), why not;
(c) if yes to (a), will the Minister table the records, catalogues, tracking document or excerpt which provides a detail of the status of each recommendation;
(d) if no to (c), why not;
(e) if yes to (a), how many recommendations are there in total;
(f) how many recommendations have not been completed or are open;
(g) how many recommendations are there with status unknown, broken down by each body making the recommendations; and
(h) if yes to (a), what percentage of these recommendations are past the due date for completion?
Answered on 29 November 2018
(a) Yes
(b) N/A.
(c – d) The information contained in the summary of recommendations includes both security and intelligence data held by the Department of Justice. Due to the extensive number of recommendations, identifying and removing any applicable sensitive security information could divert a substantial and unreasonable portion of agency and ministerial resources away from other operations. Based on this, could the Member please specify what type of recommendations are being sought and the provision of this information will be considered.
(e) As at the 7 November 2018, there are 661 recommendations being tracked in the electronic system which was implemented in July 2017. The earliest recommendation in the system is from 16 October 2010.
(f) As at the 7 November 2018, there are 315 open recommendations being tracked in the electronic system, which was implemented in July 2017. The earliest open recommendation being tracked is from 17 November 2011 and with the latest open recommendation input on 17 September 2018.
(g) As at the 7 November 2018, there are 0 recommendations which have a status that is unknown.
(h) As at the 7 November 2018, 93 recommendations of the open recommendations are 6 months past their due date for completion.
Supplementary Information:
The Department operates an electronic recommendation tracking system.
Recommendations raised in external reports and audits are tracked and monitored through to completion in this system. The progress and closure of all recommendations is reported quarterly to the Department’s Risk Management and Audit Committee.
Prior to being entered into the audit tracking system, recommendations are assigned an approved response by the Department and a responsible person and agreed completion date is assigned to each recommendation.
The fifty-one recommendations emanating from the Corruption and Crime Commission reports are currently being assigned actions and responses, responsible officers and completion dates. Following tabling at the Risk Management and Audit Committee those recommendations will be added to the tracking system.
In response to question (c) the Department has provided an extract of the 661 recommendations currently contained in the audit tracking system. The extract contains details in relation to the review body, the actual recommendations and the status of all recommendations.