ICAC reputation damaged after failures to investigate high profile public servant
The head the state's anti-corruption watchdog has admitted ICAC's reputation has been damaged by failures linked to an investigation into a former high profile public servant. Ann Vanstone says the conduct of some investigators was unacceptable and it's regrettable the case wasn't adjudicated at trial.
Transcript
00:00 Jess, ICAC's Mayor Culper today relates to the Watchdog's investigation into former
00:06 Renewal SA boss John Hanlon.
00:08 He was charged in 2020 with abuse of public office, relating to trips he took to Melbourne
00:13 and Germany, but twice the cases against him were dropped, with Mr Hanlon always maintaining
00:18 his innocence.
00:19 ICAC's handling of the Hanlon matter was subject to review by independent inspector Philip
00:24 Strickland, who found significant institutional failures by the organisation.
00:28 Anti-corruption commissioner Anne Vanstone has now formally responded to that review.
00:33 She says Mr Strickland made fair criticisms of the commission, and she admits there were
00:37 substantive errors in the investigation regarding Mr Hanlon's trip to Germany.
00:42 Ms Vanstone says the failures were serious, which led to the case not being adjudicated
00:46 at trial as it should have been.
00:49 She also admitted the commission's reputation had been damaged as a result.
00:53 Anne Vanstone says she also prepared her report to deal with what she has described as falsehoods
00:57 about the case.
00:59 She says ICAC is a different organisation now to when it conducted the investigation
01:03 of Mr Hanlon four years ago, having made changes to its operations.
01:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]