Maintaining and preserving your integrity in grants and procurement programs

Government officers are increasingly finding themselves operating in grey areas when undertaking grants or procurement activities.

Notwithstanding the existence of comprehensive rules and guidelines, ‘soft’ influences are increasingly impacting desired outcomes. In this session, Bruce Brown and Nicole Elliott will discuss these complexities including:

• Procurements and grants processes are increasingly involving multiple stages, including extensive industry consultation;
• The increasing use of Whole of Government panels is, arguably, leading to a deskilling of staff if they subsequently have to undertake more complex arrangements – leading to greater reliance on external experts;
• On occasions, the importing of private sector executives into agencies, or the creation of  ‘private sector oriented agencies’ can put pressure on the conventional grants and procurement processes that governments expect;
• Increasing use of embedded consultants and contractors is creating more complex conflict of interest and confidentiality challenges;
• More complex projects take longer to finalise, leading to challenges in maintaining probity and integrity for longer periods, often while coping with staff turnovers;
• External pressures are coming to bear on the decision making and drafting of recommendations for successful grant/procurement applicants;
• Political imperatives to fast track grants and other government programs for valid economic reasons  (for example, the response to Covid-19) can lead to processes that may ultimately turn out to involve unacceptable shortcuts.

How can public officers maintain their integrity while responding to these challenges? The presentation will use various case studies to demonstrate the challenges that public officers face, and steps they can take to maintain their integrity.

ACT Legal Practitioners CPD : 1 point
(Substantive law and procedural law)

CIPS: 1 CPD hour

Presenters:

Bruce Brown
Expert Advisor

Nicole Elliott 
Special Advisor
National Lead – Policy & Programs