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Before you make a complaint

Before making a complaint, we encourage you to consider:

  • Does your complaint relate to public sector misconduct? We can only accept complaints related to this, and
  • Are you making the complaint in good faith? It is an offence to knowingly make a false complaint.

Another important factor to consider is whether you can give us your contact details. We understand that this can be a difficult decision to make and want to support you to make it with confidence. We offer three options:

Make an anonymous complaint

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We accept anonymous complaints

You don’t have to give your name when you make a complaint. However, we encourage you to provide your contact details when reporting misconduct. If we don’t know who you are, we cannot follow up to ask for further information or let you know what happens.

We can keep your identity confidential if you ask us to.

If you submit an anonymous complaint, make sure the information you provide is as comprehensive as possible. This is important because the information you provide in the complaint will determine what action we can take.

We won’t be able to contact you to seek further information or update you about the status of your complaint, but we will take it seriously.

Provide your contact details

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This allows us to follow up with you about your complaint and seek further information if required. We can also keep you informed about the status of your complaint.

If we decide to refer your complaint to a different agency, your contact details may be included.

Provide your contact details, but ask that they be withheld

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We can follow up with you about your complaint and seek further information if required.

However, if you tell us you would prefer your contact details to be kept confidential, we can then withhold them from other organisations if we refer your complaint on for action.

Where to make a complaint

Anyone can make a complaint to us about Tasmanian public sector misconduct. We deal with public sector misconduct complaints and can investigate when we need to find out further information.

Every organisation should have its own policy to deal with reports of misconduct. An employer is usually the most efficient organisation to deal with complaints of misconduct about its staff.

If you wish to report misconduct in your organisation, the first step is to follow your internal complaints policy. If you are not sure how to do this, ask your line manager or human resources department. If you do not wish to reveal your report directly to your manager, contact your human resources department for advice.

If you are concerned that your organisation won’t deal with your complaint fairly, you can submit a complaint to the Commission. We can also monitor and audit how public sector organisations handle complaints.

Other places to lodge a complaint

If you have a complaint or concern about misconduct outside the Integrity Commission’s jurisdiction, but you are not sure where to report it, refer to other complaint organisations for further information.

If you need further support, please get in touch with us. We may be able to advise you about another appropriate organisation to approach.

Making a complaint

Your complaint must be made in writing and can be either handwritten or typed.

We suggest you use the official complaint form. You can:

If there isn’t enough space on the form, you can provide further information on separate sheets of paper.

Information to provide

Provide as much relevant and specific detail as you can, including:

  • what kind of misconduct you are complaining about
  • how the alleged misconduct happened, when it happened, where it happened
  • who said what to who
  • names of the persons who committed misconduct, and witnesses
  • any evidence you have, and
  • whether you have already reported the matter to another organisation.

Please be as specific as possible, and provide names, date and places. If you provide written material in support of your complaint, please make it clear what is relevant to your complaint.

People who deliberately provide false or misleading information to the Commission may commit an offence under the Integrity Commission Act 2009, and may be prosecuted.

We cannot accept complaints over the phone or assist with writing complaints.

If you require assistance with accessibility services, please visit our accessibility page.

What happens next

If you have provided us with your contact details, we will confirm with you when we receive your complaint and may contact you for further information or clarification. If we cannot accept your complaint because it does not fit within our functions, we will let you know.

Soon after we receive your complaint, our complaint handling process will begin. As outlined in our Act, this three-stage process involves:

Triage

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The aim of triage is to determine the initial action we will take. There are three outcomes from triage – we can either dismiss, refer or assess the complaint.

If we dismiss your complaint, we will tell you why. Similarly, we will let you know if we refer your complaint elsewhere for action. Sometimes this is the most appropriate way to address certain matters. When we refer a complaint, we can monitor and audit how it is dealt with and can require the referral body to report on any action it plans to take.

Assessment

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The third outcome from triage is assessment. During an assessment, we conduct preliminary enquiries to better understand the matter, with a focus on publicly available information.

We aim to complete assessments within 40 business days. When we have finished the assessment, we will either dismiss the complaint, refer it to another body or make the decision to investigate it ourselves.

Investigation

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The decision to start investigating a complaint does not necessarily mean there has been wrongdoing, only that we are seeking to establish the facts.

Investigations can be complex and take considerable time. If necessary, we can exercise our investigative powers to obtain information or require individuals to be interviewed.

The Board of the Integrity Commission makes the decision on whether or not to publicly release an investigation report.

We take your privacy into account during all stages of this process.

If you provided your contact details with your complaint, we will let you know the outcome of your complaint. This may take some time because we work to make sure we get the right outcome.

This page was last updated on 01 Nov 2022.