In a report tabled in parliament on Tuesday – pointedly titled “A Dependent Commission Against Corruption” – Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ann Vanstone KC again criticised what she described as an “absurd” ban on the ICAC directly referring matters to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The criticisms come as Vanstone prepares to leave her role next Friday, September 6, with her replacement yet to be announced.

Vanstone announced in July she was resigning in frustration over changes to the ICAC Act in 2021 that she said “damaged” anti-corruption work. She also criticised the Malinauskas Government for not taking up her recommendations for “modest reform” of the state’s anti-corruption regime.

Under the changes which passed parliament without opposition in 2021, the ICAC is required to refer its corruption investigations onto a law enforcement agency – namely SA Police – for further investigation and potential prosecution.

Previously, the ICAC was able to brief the DPP and provide assistance if the DPP decided to initiate a prosecution.

The changes mean SA Police now acts as an “intermediary” between ICAC and the DPP, Vanstone said, creating “significant barriers to the assistance commission investigators can give to the director”.

“Detail is often lost in translation. Time is lost. Things are missed. Prosecutions are hampered,” Vanstone said in her report tabled on Tuesday.

“This is not in the public interest.”

Vanstone said the new arrangements have undermined the independence of the ICAC and led to delays, inefficiencies and a “loss of working knowledge” of evidence and investigations.

“The commission is the only body in South Australia expressly prohibited from bringing information about alleged crime to the attention of the director,” she said.

“It makes the commission the only integrity and anti-corruption agency precluded from briefing the Director in its state or territory.”

Vanstone said the “cumulative result” of the split between the ICAC and the DPP “is that I infrequently refer a matter for prosecution”.

“The likelihood of a conviction under the present system is markedly diminished,” she said.

Vanstone cited one case where she referred a four-month ICAC investigation to SA Police and suggested that an abuse of public office charge would be appropriate.

The ICAC said SA Police took a further 12 months to investigate the case “before a charge of a much less serious, indeed, summary offence was laid”.

“A guilty plea was then entered to that charge. The disposition was a good behaviour bond without a conviction being recorded,” Vanstone said, adding that the matter was never passed to the DPP.

“In my view, the matter was dealt with in a way that did not address the seriousness of the alleged conduct, especially the abuse of the power entrusted in the person the subject of the investigation.

“I consider it was a matter that warranted the director’s consideration.”

Vanstone also said there were problems with SA Police taking up briefs of evidence “afresh” from ICAC investigators who already have “substantial working knowledge of the brief of evidence and the steps taken in an investigation”.

“Indeed, the detailed knowledge of the investigation, the steps taken and not taken in it, and the reasons for that, are inevitably lost,” Vanstone said.

“None of this is surprising. A SAPOL officer is being asked to be responsible for an investigation they did not commence or undertake.

“They are asked to be an intermediary in all communication between the commission investigators and director’s prosecutors.

“The process is set up to fail.”

Vanstone’s report, one of five tabled in parliament on Tuesday, made one recommendation: amend the ICAC Act to reinstate the capacity for the ICAC to refer a matter to the DPP.

Referencing the ICAC’s report in a ministerial statement on Tuesday, Attorney-General Kyam Maher said: “I note the current arrangements were supported by both Houses of Parliament when amendments were made to the ICAC Act in 2021.”

“This recommendation will be considered as part of any broader reforms that integrity agencies and stakeholders have advocated for,” he said.

The Malinauskas Government has previously argued that the 2021 changes to the ICAC regime need more time to take effect.