30Tendering information, documents and evidence

30 Tendering information, documents and evidence

30 Tendering information, documents and evidence

(1) For the purposes of a special inquiry, the Advocate may, by notice in writing served on any employee of a government agency or any other person require the employee or other person to do any one or more of the following—

(a) to send to the Advocate, on or before a day specified in the notice, a statement setting out such information as is so specified,

(b) to send to the Advocate, on or before a day specified in the notice, such documents as are so specified,

(c) to attend a hearing before the Advocate to give evidence.

(2) Any such employee or other person is, subject to this Act and any other relevant Act or law, under a duty to comply with the notice and to answer any question the employee or other person is required to answer by the person presiding at the hearing before the Advocate.

(3) A person must not—

(a) give to the Advocate, whether orally or in writing, information that the person knows is false or misleading in a material particular (unless the person informs the Advocate of that fact), or

(b) at a hearing before the Advocate, give evidence that the person knows is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty—50 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

(4) If documents are given to the Advocate under this section, the Advocate—

(a) may take possession of, and make copies of or take extracts from, the documents, and

(b) may keep possession of the documents for such period as is necessary for the purposes of the special inquiry to which they relate, and

(c) during that period must permit the documents to be inspected at all reasonable times by the persons who would be entitled to inspect them if they were not in the possession of the Advocate.