Purpose

Latrobe City Council is required to establish and publish procedures under s 58 of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2012 (the Act) and in accordance with the Guidelines of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) published under s 57 of the Act. The Council is required to ensure these procedures are readily available to members of the public as well as internally to all Councillors, employees, and staff of the Council.

Latrobe City Council is committed to the aims and objectives of the Act in that it does not tolerate improper conduct by the organisation, its employees, officers, members, or Councillors, or the taking of reprisals against those who come forward to disclose such conduct. The making of public interest disclosures is valued by the organisation and the right of any individual to make a public interest disclosure is taken seriously.

Latrobe City Council recognises the value of transparency and accountability in its administrative and management practices. The Council supports the making of public interest disclosures that reveal corrupt conduct, conduct involving a substantial mismanagement of public resources, or conduct involving a substantial risk to public health and safety or the environment. The Council is committed to the elimination of all forms of fraud and to creating an ethical environment and culture that discourages and prevents fraud.

Latrobe City Council will take all reasonable steps to protect people who make public interest disclosures from any detrimental action in reprisal for making the public interest disclosure. It will also afford natural justice to the person who is the subject of the public interest disclosure.

These procedures complement the existing communication channels between supervisors and employees whereby employees are encouraged in the first instance to continue to raise appropriate matters at any time with their supervisors.

Latrobe City Council will ensure that appropriate training is provided at all levels of the organisation to raise awareness of how a public interest disclosure may be made, and to take all reasonable steps to ensure staff, employees and Councillors are familiar with the Council’s public interest disclosures procedures and any relevant codes of conduct or related policies.

Scope

This is a resource for disclosers and potential disclosers, whether an internal Council member, employee or staff member or a member of the public. Essentially it provides information for any individual who wants to find out how to make a public interest disclosure, receive the protections available under the Act, and how the discloser and their disclosure may be managed and handled by the Council.

These procedures cover:

• how disclosures may be made to the Council;
• how the Council manages the receipt of public interest disclosures;
• how the Council assesses public interest disclosures it is able to receive under the Act;
• notifications the Council is required to make about public interest disclosures;
• how the Council protects certain people, including from detrimental action being taken against them in reprisal for making a public interest disclosure, namely:
• public interest disclosers;
• persons who are the subject of public interest disclosures and public interest complaints; and
• other persons connected to public interest disclosures, such as witnesses or persons cooperating with an investigation.

These procedures establish a system for reporting disclosures of improper conduct or detrimental action by Latrobe City Council or its employees. They enable such disclosures (by employees or members of the public) to be made to the Public Interest Disclosures Coordinator or other appropriate person.

A list of definitions are provided at Attachment A.