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Business Continuity Management
- > Auditing and Assurance Standards Board Australia
- > Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants
- > Business Continuity Institute Australia
- > Information Systems Audit and Control Association
- > Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia
- > Institute of Internal Auditors Australia
- > NSW Independent Commission against Corruption
Protected Disclosures
The Protected Disclosures Act is designed to encourage and facilitate the disclosure, in the public interest, of corrupt conduct, maladministration and serious and substantial waste in the public sector by enhancing and augmenting established procedures for making disclosures concerning such matters; and
- protecting persons from reprisals that might otherwise be inflicted on them because of those disclosures;
- and providing for those disclosures to be properly investigated and dealt with. (Section 3.1 Protected Disclosures Act 1994).
The University of Wollongong has established a reporting system to facilitate employees in making protected disclosures.
Employees can make protected disclosures either:
- Internally - to the Vice-Principal (Administration) who is the University's disclosure co-ordinator or to the Vice-Chancellor & Principal;
- Externally - to the NSW Ombudsman, the Independent Committee Against Corruption (ICAC), or the NSW Auditor General; or
- To Members of Parliament or Journalists. These conditions are laid down in section 19 of the Protected Disclosures Act.
Confidentiality protects both employees who make a bona fide Protected Disclosure as well as the subjects of a disclosure. Any unauthorised breach of confidentiality is a serious matter and will be the subject of disciplinary action.
Disclosures which are frivolous, vexatious, primarily question the merits of government policy or are made in an attempt to avoid dismissal or disciplinary action will not be protected by the Protected Disclosures Act. Everyone in the University has a responsibility to report known or suspected incidences of corruption, maladministration or serious and substantial waste.
All disclosures must be properly dealt with. The Vice-Principal (Administration) as Disclosure Co-ordinator must assess each disclosure; ensure that appropriate follow up action is taken, report investigation findings and recommend remedial action; advise external agencies as appropriate; and keep the person who made the original disclosure informed of the progress of the matter. All disclosures must be dealt with pursuant to the rules of natural justice and provide the opportunity for the subject of the disclosure to explain his/her version of events.