THE Integrity Commission (IC) has asked legislators to consider expanding its investigative powers under the Protected Disclosures Act.

Director of Information and Complaints at the IC, Craig Beresford, on Wednesday told a joint select committee reviewing the Act that the commission is recommending that its lawful authority as a designated authority under the whistle-blower law be expanded in the course of an investigation.

According to Beresford, this would entitle the IC to have access to all documents or property in connection with a protected disclosure and to enter premises occupied by any person in order to make enquiries or to inspect or secure copies of documents or other property the designated authority considers necessary to any matter being investigated.

Beresford explained that the IC is a special creature in terms of how it is structured, with each director being independent in carrying out their functions. He noted that the board of the commission has assigned designated authority function to the Information and Complaints Division.

“The Investigation Division, which is a separate creature by itself, has its own functions, its own powers. That is why when we are conducting investigations as the designated authority, we would want that power to be unimpeded,” added Beresford.

But members of the committee were hesitant to accept the proposal, with Julian Robinson from the Opposition benches declaring that he would be very uncomfortable expanding that level of authority, which is a judicial or quasi-judicial role to a designated body that a minister determines.Robinson said he is concerned about the possibility of an overly zealous individual who overreacted.

“I don’t know what protection would exist to [deter] that kind of overzealous person, and that’s why I am wary of this particular recommendation that you are making. I am…not clear on the threshold that a particular matter would have to reach to warrant this. I would definitely be opposed to it at the outset,” said Robinson.

In the meantime, Government Senator Kavan Gayle questioned Beresford as to why the IC would now find it necessary to have these expanded powers and whether there have been instances that would require this type of intervention.

In his response, Beresford noted that the implementation of the legislation only started last year, “so we are currently operationalising in terms of certain nuances and things coming up. We have not seen that yet, but we are just trying to align it back to the IC Act”.

The IC already has expanded powers under its enabling legislation for the investigation of matters relating to corruption and has reported that, as a designated authority, it has received seven protected disclosures in 2022 and 15 so far this year.

The commission said it has also received reports from the designated officers in relation to disclosures made internally to the designated officers in these organisations. A total of six were received in 2022, and two so far in 2023.

According to the commission, of the seven protected disclosures it received in 2022, six were complaints of victimisation and one was related to a conflict of interest.Of the 15 in 2023, two had to do with health and safety, one related to breach of the procurement guidelines, 10 victimisation complaints, and one was a discrimination matter.

A protected disclosure is a report made in specific circumstances by an employee to an employer, minister, prescribed person, the designated authority, an attorney-at-law, or to the prime minister.The Protected Disclosures Act was established to facilitate and encourage the making, in a responsible manner, of disclosures of improper conduct in the public interest to regulate the receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with disclosures of improper conduct and to protect employees who make specified disclosures from being subjected to occupational detriment.