National Anti-Corruption Commission finds nepotism in Home Affairs recruitment is corrupt conduct

Publisher
The National Anti-Corruption Commission
Date published
June 2025

Relevant impacts: Government Outcomes Impact, Reputational Impact, Security Impact

A July investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission has found that a Senior Executive Service (SES) official at the Department of Home Affairs acted corruptly by interfering in a recruitment process for the benefit of her sister and her sister's fiancé.

In an investigation labelled Operation Kingscliff, the Commission found that an SES Band 1 officer abused her office to fast track her sister's fiancé into a senior role at Home Affairs, and then further abused her office to try and aid her sister in securing an EL1 position.

All APS staff are encouraged to read the case study in full for further details, and for the Commission's reflection on the dangers of nepotism and cronyism in APS recruitment, and the unique challenge they propose to public sector integrity.

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Related fraudster personas

The Reckless

The Reckless acts without care, responsibility or regard to the consequences of their actions by disregarding requirements, procedures, warnings or directions to gain personal benefits.
ICON 026: Reckless persona

The Concealer

The Concealer hides their actions from being seen or known about to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 032: Concealer persona

The Exploiter

The Exploiter uses something for a wrongful purpose to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 031: Exploiter persona

The Coercer

The Coercer influences, manipulates or bribes another person to act in a desired way to dishonestly gain personal benefits.
ICON 030: Coercer persona

Related countermeasures

Managerial, independent or expert oversight

Make sure a manager, independent person or expert oversees actions and decisions. Involving multiple people in actions and decisions increases transparency and reduces the opportunity for fraud.

Staff and contractor rotation

Rotate staff and contractors in and out of roles to avoid familiarity. Staff and contractors can become too familiar with processes, customers or vendors, which can lead to insider threats.

Random allocation

Randomly allocate requests or claims to staff for processing. This removes the option for staff to select which claims to process.

Segregation of duties

Separate duties by allocating tasks and associated privileges for a business process to multiple staff. This is very important in areas such as payroll, finance, procurement, contract management and human resources. Systems help to enforce the strong separation of duties. This is also known as segregation of duties.

Public transparency

Publish information on your entity’s decision-making processes, decisions made, successful tenderers or grantees, incidents and breaches.

Complaints handling

Allow clients, staff and third parties to lodge complaints about actions or decisions they disagree with. This may identify fraud or corruption as a cause for complaints, such as a failure to receive an expected payment.

Activity reporting

Prepare summary reports on activities for clients, managers or responsible staff.

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