33Duty to notify Commission of possible officer misconduct and serious maladministration

33 Duty to notify Commission of possible officer misconduct and serious maladministration

33 Duty to notify Commission of possible officer misconduct and serious maladministration

(1) This section applies to the following officers—

(a) the Ombudsman,

(b) the Crime Commissioner,

(c) the Commissioner of Police,

(d) the ICAC Commissioner,

(e) the principal officer of a public authority,

(e1) the Children’s Guardian,

(f) an officer who constitutes a public authority.

(2) An officer to whom this section applies is under a duty to report to the Commission any matter that the officer suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern officer misconduct or serious maladministration unless the matter is of a kind that any guideline issued under subsection (5) provides does not need to be reported.

(3) The report must be in writing.

(4) However, the Commission—

(a) may accept a report that is not in writing if the Commission considers it appropriate to do so, and

(b) in that event, must reduce the report to writing as soon as practicable.

(5) The Commission may issue guidelines as to what matters need or need not be reported.

(6) A report must be provided in accordance with this section despite any prohibition in, or any requirement of, any Act or law (in particular, the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002) but only to the extent that it contains information that is relevant to the officer misconduct or serious maladministration concerned.

(7) For the purposes of this section, the regulations may prescribe who is the principal officer of a public authority, but in the absence of regulations applying in relation to a particular public authority, the principal officer is the person who is the head of the authority, its most senior officer or the person normally entitled to preside at its meetings.