News

Wrong conduct and potential systemic issues in procurement of a contractor to fill a senior executive role

19 Oct 2021

The NSW Ombudsman has made findings of wrong conduct by the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) in procuring the services of a contractor to ‘act in’ a vacant senior executive role for a period of around 11 months.

The findings, made under section 26 of the Ombudsman Act, include that the department acted unreasonably by treating the initial contract (and an extension a few months later) as ‘emergency procurements’, and that it had acted contrary to law by not notifying them to the NSW Procurement Board.

Major overhaul of whistleblower protection laws in NSW

19 Oct 2021

In a report tabled in Parliament today, the NSW Ombudsman has welcomed the introduction of a bill that re-writes the State’s whistleblower-protection laws.

“The willingness of public officials to come forward and report wrongdoing when they see it is essential to maintaining integrity and public confidence,” the Ombudsman, Paul Miller said. “The current law is overly technical and complex. It requires the public official to navigate a legal minefield.”

Falling infant and child mortality rates not equal across NSW

23 Aug 2021

The Biennial report of the deaths of children in New South Wales: 2018 and 2019, incorporating reviewable deaths of children, tabled in Parliament by NSW Ombudsman Paul Miller, details how, over the 15-year period from 2005 to 2019, for infants aged less than 1, mortality rate declined by 30%. For children aged 1 to 17 years, the rate declined by 26%.

New report released - An inherent conflict of interest: councils as developer and regulator

15 Dec 2020

There is inherent potential for conflicts of interest when NSW local councils undertake their own developments, according to a new report by the NSW Ombudsman.

The report An inherent conflict of interest: councils as developer and regulator, tabled in Parliament today by Acting Ombudsman Paul Miller, has found this potential exists because there are no clear guidelines or best-practice approaches for instances when a local council is both the developer as well as being the regulator of that development.

The report also highlights an instance when such a conflict of interest led to unlawful action.