Queensland’s new Crime and Corruption Commission has received fewer than half the complaints its predecessor did during the same period last year.
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Acting chairman Dr Ken Levy briefed the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee on Monday about the CCC’s activity between April 1 and June 30, when it was still the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
He was also asked how many misconduct complaints had been received since July 1, when the CCC came into being.
“There have been 144 complaints alleging corruption since the first of July,” he said.
“That compares with 339 complaints of official misconduct for the same period in 2013.”
A number of changes to the watchdog recently came into effect which raise the threshold of what constitutes official misconduct and force those lodding complaints to include a statutory declaration outlining, among other requirements, that the complaint is not baseless, meaning complaints can no longer be made anonymously.
Dr Levy told the PCCC it was still early days for the CCC, and the number of complaints lodged may change.
“Of the 144 new matters that have come in, 83 were from the public sector, 16 came in with statutory declarations, 31 came in with no statutory declarations and those matters are waiting an outcome,” he said.
“There were 11 anonymous complaints and three internally-generated matters.”
During the April-June quarter, the commission began nine new major crime investigations, including two specific referrals of murder.
The other seven relate to organised crime, weapons and vulnerable victims matters. Four of them are in a sensitive or covert stage.
108 days of hearings were held in regards to 24 crime investigations, including 10 homicides.
Over $3 million of restraining and forfeiture orders issued were specifically related to criminal motorcycle gang-related matters.
Dr Levy also said he would stand down as acting chairman if the state government moved to appoint another candidate.
During his apology to the people of Queensland last month, Premier Campbell Newman admitted it was wrong to abolish the need for the CCC chairman to have bi-partisan support.
Dr Levy is acting in the role until October 31.
“I will certainly stand down if the government indicates they’re going to appoint another person,” he said.
