Around five per cent of federal public servants said they witnessed corrupt behaviour this year, with most of the complaints relating to fellow bureaucrats giving preference to friends and family in the hiring process.
The finding comes from an internal survey, published by the Australian Public Service Commission in its annual report.
The report also shows 64 public servants were found to have made improper use of inside information, or abused their status, power or authority. That’s an increase on 31 breaches in the same category in 2015-16.
There were 287 breaches in the “behave with honesty and integrity” category, while 16 were found not to have complied with relevant Australian laws.
The federal public service spans 59 agencies and includes massive departments like Human Services, the Tax Office and Defence, and the Commission’s report said only 0.3 percent of the total public service were investigated for any breach of the government’s Code of Conduct this year.
But the survey shows the number of bureaucrats who believe they have seen corruption in the workplace is increasing.
The figure is now at five per cent, up from 3.6 percent last year, and up further from 2.6 percent the year before.
Of the five per cent who said they had seen corrupt behaviour from a colleague, 64 percent reported cronyism and 26 percent reported nepotism.
Twenty-one per cent said they had witnessed ‘green-lighting’ – the practice of making decisions that favour, or disadvantage, a person or company.
Of those who breached the Code of Practice in any way, 18 per cent lost their jobs.
Around 45 per cent had their pay cut, while another 23 per cent took a one-off fine. In three-quarters of cases the employee was reprimanded.
