PUBLIC SECTOR — CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
822. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the Leader of the House representing
the Minister for Public Sector Management:
I refer to the need to avoid the
real and apparent existence of conflicts of interest in the Western Australian
public sector, particularly at the most senior levels of the service.
(1) Is there a positive
obligation under the Public Sector Management Act 1994 and/or the Public
Interest Disclosure Act 2003, or another relevant act, for an officer to make a
formal personal disclosure of the existence of a conflict?
(2) If yes, to which classes of
officer does this obligation apply?
(3) To whom or to
which authority are these disclosures made, and where and how are these records
retained?
Hon
SAMANTHA ROWE replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. I provide the following answer on behalf of the
Leader of the House representing the Minister for Public Sector Management.
(1) Yes.
(2) All public
sector bodies are required to develop a code of conduct, with conflicts of
interest procedures a mandatory requirement. In addition, public sector chief
executive officers are required to disclose relevant interests they and their
families have, as well as a plan to manage identified interests, to the Public
Sector Commissioner.
Treasurer's Instruction
924 — Related party disclosures requires agency key management
personnel to disclose if a member of their family or a close relation was contracted
by their agency for an amount more than $50 000, and how they ensured they did
not influence the contracting of the services. Any such transactions are
disclosed in the financial statements in the agency's annual report.