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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 822 asked in the Legislative Council on 20 September 2022 by Hon Tjorn Sibma

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.