Misconduct Resistance Framework - Corruption and Crime ...

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Misconduct is not a question of ‘bad apples’ – it’s a management problem . ”
Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2007 – Corruption Prevention for Managers Workshop
A NEW APPROACH TO MANAGING MISCONDUCT
Misconduct generally occurs when a public officer abuses authority for personal gain or to cause
detriment to another person, or acts contrary to the public interest.
In the past, managing misconduct was seen in the same way many other corporate social responsibilities were
viewed – as an expensive burden that contributed little or nothing to business outcomes.
Misconduct was generally only considered in situations where doing ‘good’ or acting in the public interest was
more important than doing ‘well’ and producing results. Experience has proven that these goals are not mutually
exclusive: the integrity of an agency and management of misconduct are essential to improve business and
service delivery outcomes. Integrity and performance are complementary goals of public administration, therefore
one should not be seen as more important than the other.
This framework has been developed to help our public sector agencies better manage misconduct. To build
misconduct resistance, agencies should adopt strategies that prevent, treat, detect and respond to misconduct.
Simply introducing more controls, policies and systems is not enough to build a misconduct resistant agency.
In fact, without careful planning, they can produce administrative inefficiency and reduce performance.
This approach to misconduct resistance has two purposes:
– To encourage and increase the factors which actively work to inhibit misconduct.
– To eliminate and restrict the factors which allow misconduct to occur.
This framework aims to enhance agency strategies in both areas to create a more efficient and effective
approach, integrating misconduct resistance strategies with existing integrity systems, risk management
processes, compliance and audit activities, and fraud control strategies.
Misconduct resistance should not be treated as a ‘bolt on’ set of accountability and compliance requirements
that have nothing to do with the rest of an agency’s business activities.
To be effective, deliver sustainable benefits for the agency, and reduce the risk and incidence of misconduct,
misconduct resistance must be fully integrated with wider corporate systems.
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