The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will visit the Hunter New England region next week as part of its rural and regional outreach program to share anti-corruption initiatives and training across the state.
The visit, to be based in Tamworth, will include a series of events and activities including workshops for public officials located in the area, visits to local councils, information sessions for local electorate staff, and visits to local TAFEs.
ICAC Chief Commissioner the Hon John Hatzistergos AM will host a community leaders' forum on Thursday morning 14 November, where he will be joined for a panel discussion by the NSW Ombudsman, Mr Paul Miller PSM; the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Chief Commissioner, the Hon Peter Johnson SC; and National Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Commissioner, Ms Kylie Kilgour.
The panel will discuss the roles of their organisations, regional issues, and how community leaders and members can contribute to helping oversight agencies fulfil their functions. Guests attending the forum will include senior staff from government agencies, and community interest groups.
Chief Commissioner Hatzistergos said that the rural and regional outreach program helps the Commission to connect with public officials and communities outside the metropolitan area.
"Sharing anti-corruption initiatives and messages is an important part of the ICAC's role," Chief Commissioner Hatzistergos said. "We are looking forward to conducting training opportunities with public officials and leaders in the Hunter New England region, and are also keen to meet and explain the role that all members of the community can play in combatting corruption."
Workshops scheduled for this visit include corruption prevention for managers, which focuses on developing an understanding of the nature of corruption, how and why it occurs, and what managers can do to prevent it; corruption prevention in procurement and contract management, which aims to assist managers and staff responsible for procurement to identify where systems weaknesses and corruption opportunities may lie; preventing corrupt conduct in Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs), which focuses on the specific corruption issues LALCs may face and how these can be effectively managed; preventing corrupt conduct in non-government organisations (NGOs), focusing on assisting NGOs to ensure that corruption does not occur when their staff are performing public official functions or using public funds; and corruption prevention for planners and regulatory officers, which will assist these officers to identify and manage the corruption risks in their roles.
Workshops and visits to be held or undertaken in the next week include local and regional councils in locations such as Armidale, Coonamble, Glen Innes Severn, Liverpool Plains, Moree Plains, Tamworth and Gunnedah. State government agencies taking part include Hunter New England Local Health District, NSW Ambulance, TAFE NSW, Corrective Services NSW, NSW Reconstruction Authority, Amaroo, Anaiwan, Glen Innes, Guyra and Moombahlene Local Aboriginal Land Councils, NSW Telco Authority, Office of Sport, NSW Reconstruction Authority, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, and the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. An online workshop for staff working for NSW members of Parliament based in central, western or northern NSW will be held this Friday.
The ICAC rural and regional outreach program has proved highly successful since its inception in 2001. Previous visits have included to the Illawarra, western NSW, the south-east, the central west, the north coast, the northern inland, the south coast, the far west, the Riverina, Central Coast, Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains. The last visit to the Hunter New England region was based in Armidale in 2019.
