| Circular Number | 2018-05 |
| Issue date: | 30 October 2018 |
| Application: | All Victorian public service bodies for executive officer recruitment. |
| Resources: | VPS executive pre-employment screening |
| Enquiries: | Integrity and Oversight Branch Victorian Public Sector Commission 03 9922 8600 [email protected] |
This is the first version of the VPS Executive Employment Pre-employment Screening Policy and applies to all executive level recruitment by public service bodies.
The Policy and associated guidance material are now available on the VPSC website.
The VPSC has a legislated responsibility to maintain and advocate for public sector professionalism and integrity. The Public Administration Act 2004 (PAA) provides a framework to ensure that employment decisions in the public sector are based on merit. Employees are required to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with the public sector values and employment principles set out in the PAA.
The Policy addresses integrity vulnerabilities identified in recruitment processes and sets a minimum standard of pre-employment screening for VPS executives. The Policy seeks to prevent employees moving between employers without previous misconduct being known or appropriately assessed in the context of relevance to the inherent requirements of a position.
The Policy requires completion of the Form prior to any formal offer of employment to an executive role in the VPS. The purpose of the Form is to allow conduct history to be known and assessed prior to formalising an offer of employment. Preferred candidates make a declaration about their conduct history and provide consent for information to be provided by previous employers to verify this history.
In most cases the Form should be completed once a preferred candidate has been identified. However, declarations made at earlier stages in the recruitment process may be appropriate for some roles.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) released the report Corruption and misconduct risks associated with employment practices in the Victorian public sector on Tuesday 14 August 2018. Inadequate pre-employment screening and the recycling of employees with problematic histories are key findings.
The report draws on case studies from past investigations and echoes key findings of previous reports identifying integrity vulnerabilities in Victorian public sector recruitment processes, particularly in pre-employment screening.
Misconduct is defined in the Public Administration Act 2004 as:
This circular applies to all public service bodies for executive officer recruitment.
A public service body is a Department, an Administrative Office established under section 11 of the Public Administration Act 2004 and the Victorian Public Sector Commission.
Departments are obliged to notify Administrative Offices in their portfolio that this Policy now applies.
The policy came into effect 30 October 2018.