Table 11 shows the number of misconduct investigations commenced with a suspected breach of Section 9 of the PSM Act, during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 reporting periods. Data is held centrally by the PSU. Section 9 of the PSM Act provides the general obligations of public employees. Procedures for dealing with misconduct are provided in the employee’s relevant Enterprise Agreement.
A misconduct investigation may involve one or more suspected breaches of Section 9 of the PSM Act. Reporting investigations rather than breaches provides a more typical sense of the level of discipline action across the ACTPS.
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|
Number of misconduct investigations commenced with a suspected breach of section 9 of the PSM Act | 73 | 70 |
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|
Number of investigations where a breach of section 9 of the PSM Act was found to have occurred | 45 | 66 |
Number of investigations where the allegations were not sustained | 7 | 6 |
Table 12 shows the number of Investigations completed in 2018-19 where a Breach of Section 9 was found to have occurred. Note: one process was undetermined as at 30 June 2019. Table 13 below shows the time taken to complete those investigations from available data held by the PSU.
2014-15 | 2015-16[1] | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of investigations completed | 23 | 42 | 80[2] | 52[3] | 73[4] |
Average time to complete investigations in working/business days | 83 | 101 | 96 | 101 | 124[5] |
The PSU has continued to focus on providing quality investigations while also improving and maintaining timeliness. As a centralised team, the PSU is well placed to conduct investigations on behalf of the ACTPS in an effective and efficient way.
During the 2018-19 reporting year, the PSU commenced more investigations than the previous year (16 per cent increase) and the average time to complete was slightly higher than the previous year. This was primarily due to an increasing volume of investigations being of a larger scale and complexity. During the 2018-19 reporting year, the PSU reviewed their processes and expect the average time to reduce during the next reporting year.
Table 14 shows the numbers against the type of sanctions imposed by Directorates during 2018-19 as a result of misconduct processes in the ACTPS. More than one sanction can be issued as a result of misconduct, therefore, the number of misconduct processes resulting in a breach may not reconcile with the total number of sanctions. Sanctions imposed during the 2018-19 reporting year may relate to investigations commenced and completed in prior years.
2018-19[6] | |
|---|---|
Written warning and admonishment | 34 |
Other financial penalty | 24 |
Temporary or permanent transfer, to another position at level or lower classification | 9 |
Termination of employment | 13 |
Employee resigned prior to sanction being imposed | 16 |
As shown in the Table 14, during 2018-19 the most common outcome reported where a breach was determined was the sanction of a written warning and admonishment. For further information about the misconduct process, please see Chapter 8, Public Sector Standards Commissioner.
[1] The 2015-16 figures have been adjusted to reflect a consistent methodology of calculating statistics between financial years, and as such may differ from figures reported in previous versions of the State of the Service Report.
[2] Includes full investigations and taking of admission statements by PSU.
[3] Includes full investigations and taking of admission statements by PSU.
[4] Includes full investigations and taking of admission statements by PSU. Four misconduct investigations were completed by external investigation services which were managed by PSU.
[5] This figure does not include completion of admission statements or investigations conducted by external investigation services.
[6] Includes PSU statistics and any sanctions reported by each Directorate in the Agency Survey.