Integrity and ethics oversight

The Integrity and Ethics Oversight Inspector (Inspector) of the Integrity and Ethics Commissioner (IEC) is an independent officer of the Northern Territory Government appointed under the section 27 of the Integrity and Ethics Commissioner Act 2025 (the Act) to provide oversight of the IEC.

The inspector’s role is set out in Part 3 (Integrity and Ethics Oversight Commissioner) and Part 4 (Oversight of Commissioner, IEC’s Office and Auditor-General’s Office) of the Act.

The Inspector's functions are:

  • in relation to the Commissioner and the IEC's Office:
    • to evaluate the Commissioner's performance, and report on the evaluation, in accordance with sections 35 and 36 of the Act
    • to evaluate any aspect of the Commissioner's operations or any conduct of a member of IEC personnel
    • to receive and deal with complaints about the Commissioner (as an Integrity Officer or otherwise), a member of IEC personnel or the IEC's Office
    • to determine how any conflict of interest that arises as a result of the Commissioner concurrently being each Integrity Officer will be resolved
    • to make recommendations to the Commissioner (as an Integrity Officer) regarding practices or procedures in relation to the exercise of powers and performance of functions under an Integrity Act.
  • in relation to the Auditor-General's Office:
    • to evaluate the Auditor-General, and report on the evaluation, in accordance with sections 43 and 44
    • to receive and deal with complaints about the Auditor-General, a member of the Auditor-General's staff or the Auditor-General's Office;
  • to perform any other functions conferred on the Inspector under this or any other Act.

The inspector is independent of, and not subject to, direction by any person about the way the Inspector exercises the powers of the office or performs the Inspector’s functions (section 26 of the Act).

Powers of the inspector

The Oversight Inspector is entitled to full and free access to IEC premises and all items in the possession or control of the IEC to make an evaluation or deal with a complaint. The IEC and IEC staff members are obligated to give the Oversight Inspector all reasonable assistance (section 38).

The Oversight Inspector has similar powers in relation to the Auditor-General’s Office in respect of evaluation of, or complaints about, that Office (section 46)

Complaints

What kind of complaints can the Inspector deal with?

The Act provides (section 37) that a person may complain to either the Commissioner or Inspector about improper conduct or questionable conduct of the Commissioner, a member of IEC personnel or the IEC’s office. If the Commissioner receives a complaint, the Commissioner is required to notify the Inspector and give details within 14 days (section 37(2)). Similar provisions apply in relation to complaints to the Inspector concerning the Auditor-General.

While improper and questionable conduct are not defined by the Act, the inspector considers that at least the following would come within the meaning of those words:

  1. conduct that is unlawful (that is, constitutes an offence or is corrupt conduct within the meaning of section 10 of the ICAC Act or is otherwise unlawful)
  2. conduct that, although it is not unlawful:
  3. is unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory in its effect, or
  4. arises, wholly or in part, from improper motives, or
  5. arises, wholly or in part, from a decision that has taken irrelevant matters into consideration, or
  6. arises, wholly or in part, from a mistake of law or fact, or
  7. is conduct of a kind for which reasons should have (but have not) been given. To illustrate, the Inspector considers that unreasonable delay in determining a complaint to it about alleged public sector corrupt conduct would constitute improper conduct on the part of the IEC.

The act provides that the Inspector may deal with a complaint in any manner that the inspector considers appropriate and empowers the inspector to require the commissioner, any member of IEC personnel, the Auditor-General and any member of the Auditor-general’s staff  to attend the Inspector to answer questions and produce documents in relation to an evaluation or complaint. The inspector may require any such person to take an oath to answer questions truthfully (section 48)

What kind of complaints are outside the inspector’s jurisdiction?

The inspector’s powers are limited to dealing with conduct of the IEC, IEC personnel and the IEC’s Office and the Auditor-General, a member of the Auditor-General’s staff and the Auditor-General’s Office.  The inspector has no power to deal with the conduct of any other agency of the Northern Territory Government. The inspector has, for example, no power under the act to deal directly with complaints of police misconduct, complaints against the judicial commission or complaints against any other public body.

It follows that the inspector has no power to deal with any matter involving the Commonwealth of Australia or any State or Territory other than the Northern Territory and there his power is limited as stated above.

The inspector cannot deal with allegations concerning a person working outside government in a private capacity, for example, a small business owner or a consultant in a private sector firm.