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Concerns of Fraud, Corruption and Misconduct

Learn how to report Fraud, Corruption and Misconduct concerns about the Office of the Independent Review Officer.

Integrity Reporting Platform

The Office of the Independent Review Officer (IRO) has zero tolerance to serious wrongdoing such as fraud or corruption. The Integrity Hotline Reporting Platform makes reporting instances of misconduct or serious wrongdoing a simple process. It’s available 24/7 to raise a concern or make a complaint and you have the option to choose to remain anonymous.

In addition to staff of the IRO, this also applies to other individuals who are considered public officials, such as contractors, subcontractors and volunteers, who are engaged to deliver services on behalf of the organisation or exercise the functions of behalf of the relevant agency.

Serious wrongdoing includes:

  • corrupt conduct
  • serious maladministration
  • serious and substantial waste of public money
  • a government information contravention
  • a privacy contravention; or
  • a local government pecuniary interest contravention.

If you are a member of the public and you believe an employee, contractor, subcontractor or volunteer, or someone we do business with is behaving inappropriately, is involved in unethical behavior, dishonest or corrupt conduct, we encourage you to report it.

We expect all our staff to behave lawfully, ethically and with integrity at all times. Staff are not permitted to accept bribes or inducements (no matter how trivial these may be), or to act dishonestly or partially as public officials.

It is also policy to report to the police any customers who might offer inducements or bribes to staff to act dishonestly. 

Making a Report

If you wish to report fraud, corruption or misconduct you can contact IRO directly, or make a report to the Department of Customer Service (DCS). A report of fraud, corruption or misconduct made by a public official is known as a Public Interest Disclosure (PID).

There are three ways you can make a report if you are a public official:

  1. visiting Whispli and submit your report or
  2. calling 1800 577 112.
  3. Report to a nominated disclosure officer or head of the agency, this includes:
    1. the Independent Review Officer
    2. a disclosure officer - ordinarily, if you are an employee, the most senior person at your worksite will be a disclosure officer. Some locations, such as corporate offices have multiple disclosure officers. In DCS and associated agencies where an arrangement for DCS to exercise PID Act 2022 functions has occurred, people occupying the following positions are disclosure officers for the purpose of the DCS PID Policy and the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022:
      • the Secretary
      • all Deputy Secretaries (Public Service Senior Executive Band 3)
      • all Executive Directors (Public Service Senior Executive Band 2)
      • all Directors (Public Service Senior Executive Band 1)
      • all staff within the DCS Investigations and Corruption Prevention directorate
      • all Service NSW Service Centre Managers
      • the most senior ongoing employee at each Department of Customer Service office location
    3. Email the Investigations and Corruption Prevention team to request contact details in the event you are unable to access the internal DCS directory.
    4. your manager - your manager will be the person who directly or indirectly supervises you. You may have more than one manager. Your manager will make sure that your report is communicated to a disclosure officer or the DCS Investigations and Corruption Prevention Team.

You can also make a PID about serious wrongdoing relating to any agency, not just the NSW Department of Customer Service, or to an integrity agency, like the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the NSW Ombudsman.

What to do if you are member of the public

You can make a report about serious wrongdoing relating to any agency, to IRO directly, or the NSW Department of Customer Service, or to an integrity agency, like the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the NSW Ombudsman.

Information for employees, contractors, subcontractors and volunteers

All employees, consultants, contractors, subcontractors and volunteers can report suspected serious wrongdoing via the Whispli reporting platform, your manager, or a disclosure officer.

If your report has the features of a voluntary public interest disclosure, the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) provides you with legal protections against detrimental action for making your report.

See the DCS PID Policy for more details.

Functions exercised on behalf of agencies

Agencies have an obligation under section 81 of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (the PID Act) to prominently publish on their website the details of any arrangement for an entity to exercise any function(s) conferred or imposed under the PID Act on behalf of the agency and any arrangement to exercise functions on behalf of another agency. The IRO has an arrangement with the Department of Customer Service; The Department of Customer Service has entered into a number of such arrangements, the details of which can be viewed here.