Edition 75, February 2010

Report finds corruption in NSW security industry licensing

Reports find corruption in NSW security industryIn a report on corruption in the provision and certification of security industry training in NSW, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found that the industry's licence upgrade process failed in its objective to weed out incompetent and undesirable registered training organisations (RTOs) and security officers.

As result of its investigation, the Commission has made corrupt conduct findings against 10 individuals and recommended that the NSW Police Commissioner assume ultimate responsibility for security industry integrity-related functions.

The Commission has made 16 corruption prevention recommendations to address the fundamental regulatory problems besetting the industry.

The Commission examined the "fragmentary and confused state of the current regulatory system", and considered how the evidence of "corrupt conduct and poor quality recognition of prior learning assessments uncovered during this investigation raises real doubts about the legitimacy of all current security licences in NSW and the integrity and competence of all security training providers".

The ICAC considers the NSW Police Commissioner should assume ultimate responsibility for corruption prevention, corruption risk management, and fraud and corruption investigation and detection.

The Commission also recommends that the Security Industry Registrar (SIR) should be given sufficient, dedicated staffing and other resources to implement the above recommendation, without reliance on staff from other sections of the Police, the Vocational Education and Training Board, the approved industry associations or any other organisations. It also recommends that the SIR should take steps to determine the validity of all security qualifications granted during the upgrade process.

The Commission recommends that VETAB improve its auditing and monitoring of RTOs to ensure early detection of training, assessment or recognition of prior learning not conducted in accordance with the Australian Quality Training Framework standards.

The report says that between 1 September 2007 and 9 March 2009, 28 RTOs issued nearly 45,000 training certificates. One of those RTOs, Roger Training Academy, issued around 26% of these certificates. The Commission found that some candidates enrolled in Roger security training courses were provided answers in advance to written tests to assess their competency in security-related activities, and were then issued certificates that falsely represented the prescribed competencies had been demonstrated.

To view the investigation report visit
www.icac.nsw.gov.au/documents/doc_download/3336-report-on-corruption-in-the-provision-and-certification-of-security-industry-training-operation-columba-9-dec-2009

To view the fact sheet visit www.icac.nsw.gov.au/documents/doc_download/3327-fact-sheet-report-on-corruption-in-the-provision-and-certification-of-security-industry-training

This page was generated on 25 February, 2010

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