• This section contains information for staff members of jurisdictional law enforcement agencies about how you can notify instances of suspected corrupt conduct to ACLEI.

     

    For a list of those agencies within ACLEI’s jurisdiction, read about our role.

     

    In the first instance, staff should seek to notify their internal integrity area of any potential corrupt conduct by current or former staff.

     

    Under section 19 of the LEIC Act, the Head of the Agency is required to notify the Integrity Commissioner of any potential corrupt conduct by members of that agency. Your agency’s integrity team are best placed to facilitate this process.

     

    If for whatever reason the staff member is unwilling to communicate potential corrupt conduct to their integrity area, a referral can be made directly to ACLEI via the Referral Form.

  • If you have information you think might be relevant to a potential corruption issue, please carefully review the information below about the type of conduct we can investigate and the agencies we can investigate before completing a reporting form.

     

    If your report relates to suspected corrupt conduct by a staff member of an agency in ACLEI’s jurisdiction, you may consider reporting it to the integrity or professional standards unit of that agency in the first instance.

     

    One benefit of reporting corruption in this way is that the integrity/professional standards unit of an agency may be better placed to address your concerns quickly. Should they identify that the information raises a potential corruption issue, the head of that agency is obliged to notify the matter to ACLEI under section 19 of the LEIC Act. In such circumstances, the integrity or professional standards team will be able to provide information to ACLEI that you may not have access to, allowing us to complete an assessment of the information more efficiently.

     

    We acknowledge there are circumstances where this may not be a suitable course of action, for example where the person of interest is an employee of an integrity or professional standards area of the agency your report relates to.

     

    If you do not want to give your name to ACLEI you may use an alias or remain anonymous. We encourage you to provide an email address so we can contact you if we need more information. Information provided anonymously may be more difficult to assess.

ACLEI can only investigate allegations relating to certain agencies.

ACLEI investigates allegations of corruption by current or former staff members of the following Australian Government agencies:

  • Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) (including the Australian Crime Commission, the former CrimTrac Agency and the National Crime Authority)
  • Australian Federal Police (AFP) (including ACT Policing)
  • Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
  • Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs), including the Australian Border Force (ABF)
  • Prescribed aspects of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)

ACLEI also investigates allegations of corruption by staff members who are/were performing a specific law enforcement function in the following agencies at the time of the alleged conduct:

  • Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
  • Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
  • Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
  • Office of the Special Investigator (OSI)

ACLEI cannot investigate matters or complaints about corruption by:

  • staff members of other Australian Government agencies
  • staff members of state or territory police agencies (apart from ACT Policing)
  • staff members of other state or territory government agencies
  • elected representatives (such as local councillors, members of state and territory legislatures, members of the Australian Parliament and Senators)
  • financial institutions (including banks)
  • private enterprises and their employees
  • members of the judiciary.

Learn more about how ACLEI investigates corruption

Please note: ACLEI cannot resolve issues or achieve compensation on your behalf. ACLEI is not a review agency and cannot review or overturn decisions made by other government bodies.

ACLEI can only investigate allegations of ‘corrupt conduct’.

Under the LEIC Act, a staff member of a law enforcement agency engages in corrupt conduct when they:

  • abuse their office;
  • pervert the course of justice; or
  • engage in corruption of any other kind.

The below is not an exhaustive list, but provides guidance on themes which are not considered corrupt conduct:

  • Workplace bullying
  • Workplace harassment
  • Reasonable management action
  • Workplace conflict
  • Safety issues
  • Inappropriate use of personal social media
  • Personal drug use
  • Dissatisfaction with an administrative decision made by one of our jurisdictional agencies.

View our factsheet to learn more about corruption.

Which other oversight agencies can I refer to?

  • If your complaint relates to a decision or dissatisfaction in relation to a Federal/Commonwealth agency, please direct your complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
  • If your complaint relates to a state or territory policing or government agency (excluding ACT Policing), please direct your complaint to the relevant state/territory Ombudsman or Corruption Commission.
  • If your complaint relates to the judiciary or courts, contact the judicial council in your state or territory.

Report a corruption issue

If you are unable to complete the online form please email contact@aclei.gov.au for assistance.

You can call the ACLEI Report Corruption Hotline at (02) 6141 2222. This is a monitored voicemail service.