Today the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Iain Anderson, released an own motion investigation report, Investigation into compliance with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013.

The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman (the Office) has oversight of the Public Interest Disclosure scheme (PID scheme), which allows public officials to disclose suspected wrongdoing by a Commonwealth government agency or its officials.

This investigation assessed how 4 Commonwealth agencies handle matters under the PID scheme, including reviewing their processes and procedures, examining a sample of PID matters, and considering their compliance with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013.

The investigation concluded that the agencies’ handling of the disclosures generally complied with the PID Act. However, we identified common areas in which agencies could improve their practice, including:

• the content and level of detail in investigation reports
• the content and level of detail in decision records
• the handling of assessments about the risk of reprisal to people who make disclosures
• record keeping
• communication with people who make disclosures.

Based on these observations, the report sets out a series of insights aimed at supporting all Australian Government agencies to achieve compliance and best practice when managing disclosures.

The report can be found on the Commonwealth Ombudsman website here.