You can’t end corruption but you can create anti-corruption systems

Common Weal has for a while been interested in the model created by New South Wales in Australia to deal with corruption. On a day when corruption is dominating newspaper headlines it is certainly worth looking at what steps can be taken to further discourage future instances.

New South Wales had a problem with various scandals at different levels in public life so in 1988 it created the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). This is an entirely independent agency which has a free hand to investigate any evidence or tip-offs on corruption raised with it.

What makes ICAC unusual is in how powerful it is. It is not a legal or judicial body and cannot charge people with crimes. Where it finds evidence of corruption it forwards it to the police. But beyond that it has remarkably broad powers such as the ability to tap phones and the power to command people give oral evidence in which they are compelled to answer.

ICAC does other things as well. Its investigations are carried out confidentially but it does hold public inquiries and hearings. ICAC also has a role in training public sector leaders on anti-corruption practice.

In the 28 years since its creation ICAC has had some high-profile cases and has achieved over a thousand convictions. It is is worth looking at the range and nature of the investigations it has undertaken since its creation (49 findings of corruption in last complete year), which show that it is not only about avoiding criminal activity but encouraging a culture of anti-corruption.

It has its critics. Its powers are sweeping and inevitably they have been used in instances where someone has not done anything wrong. That is inevitable in any investigatory system but the rules of ICAC lean towards an emphasis on exposing the truth rather than protecting civil liberties, particularly because it is non-judicial.

And it is clearly feared and at times mistrusted by the politicians. There have been missteps and those inevitably lead to calls for the Commission to have its remit restricted. There is an in-built incentive for public officials not to create a system which is likely to hold them to account in an rigorous manner.

Should such a model be considered for Scotland? There is plenty to suggest it should. In numerous institutions as well as in government and parliament there have been plenty of occasions in which the official conclusion is that 'lessons must be learned', but little evidence that much is being done to reduce the need to learn these lessons.

And the fact that we do not have a large number of corruption cases in Scotland is unsurprising given the lack of significant resources dedicating to investigating and prosecuting corruption. Scotland undoubtedly needs more checks and balances on power and there have been plenty of instances in which organisational leaders have acted in ways that appear to be against the public interest.

There is no foolproof system of anti-corruption. Today's news is dominated by the Murrell case and in New South Wales he would have been covered by ICAC's remit. While not a public official the remit of the Commission covers the chief executives of political parties. But it requires a tip-off or some evidence of wrongdoing to trigger an investigation.

It is not clear that in this case that would have resulted in action taking place any sooner than it did, but it would almost certainly have produced an outcome much faster. But one of the most important factors in anti-corruption is deterrence. Knowing there is a powerful body that can investigate you chill impulses to act in self interest where it is against the public interest.

There is no system which can eradicate the human incentive to cheat; all we can do is create systems which make it as difficult as possible to do, as difficult as possible to conceal, with strong deterrence to acts of corruption and with swift and effective investigation where corruption is suspected.

Nothing we have seen in the Peter Murrell case suggests that Scotland has gone as far as it can to create systems and a culture of anti-corruption. The New South Wales model is one Scotland should consider.