Concerns of Fraud, Corruption and Misconduct
Learn how to report Fraud, Corruption and Misconduct concerns about the Hardship Review Board.
Reporting misconduct or serious wrongdoing
The Hardship Review Board is an independent body who reviews certain decisions made by Revenue NSW, a division of the NSW Department of Customer Service (DCS), has zero tolerance to serious wrongdoing such as fraud or corruption.
DCS uses Whispli, an Integrity Hotline Reporting Platform to make reporting instances of misconduct or serious wrongdoing a simple process. It’s available 24/7 to raise a concern or make a complaint and you have the option to choose to remain anonymous.
In addition to Hardship Review Board staff, this also applies to other individuals who are considered public officials, such as contractors, subcontractors and volunteers, who are engaged to deliver services on behalf of the organisation or exercise the functions of behalf of the relevant agency.
If you are a member of the public and you believe an employee, contractor, subcontractor or volunteer, or someone we do business with is behaving inappropriately, is involved in unethical behaviour, dishonest or corrupt conduct, we encourage you to report it.
We expect all our staff to behave lawfully, ethically and with integrity at all times. Staff are not permitted to accept bribes or inducements (no matter how trivial these may be), or to act dishonestly or partially as public officials.
It is also policy to report to the police any customers who might offer inducements or bribes to staff to act dishonestly.
Public Interest Disclosure
To learn about public interest disclosures (PID) and the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act), visit the NSW Ombudsman website.
Making a report
Online
The Integrity Hotline Reporting Platform makes reporting instances of misconduct or serious wrongdoing a simple process. It’s available 24/7 to raise a concern or make a complaint and you have the option to choose to remain anonymous.
- Go to the DCS Whispli reporting platform.
- Select the 'Public Interest Disclosures Reports' button.
- Create or log in to your Whispli account using your email address.
- Complete and submit a PID Form.
Report it directly to a nominated disclosure officer
You can make a report to:
- the Secretary of DCS (head of the agency)
- a disclosure officer, who is ordinarily the most senior person at your worksite. Some locations, such as corporate offices have multiple disclosure officers. In DCS and associated agencies where an arrangement for DCS to exercise PID Act functions has occurred, people occupying the following positions are disclosure officers for the purpose of the DCS PID Policy and the PID Act:
- the Secretary
- all Deputy Secretaries (Public Service Senior Executive Band 3)
- all Executive Directors (Public Service Senior Executive Band 2)
- all Directors (Public Service Senior Executive Band 1)
- all staff within the DCS Investigations and Corruption Prevention directorate
- all Service NSW Service Centre Managers
- all staff within the Service NSW, Service Delivery Operational Governance
- the most senior ongoing employee at each DCS office location.
- your manager, who is the person who directly or indirectly supervises you. You may have more than one manager. Your manager will make sure that your report is communicated to a disclosure officer or the DCS Investigations and Corruption Prevention Team.
Information for employees, contractors, subcontractors and volunteers
All employees, consultants, contractors, subcontractors and volunteers can report suspected serious wrongdoing via the Whispli reporting platform, your manager, or a disclosure officer.
If your report has the features of a voluntary public interest disclosure, the PID Act provides you with legal protections against detrimental action for making your report.
Serious wrongdoing includes:
- corrupt conduct
- serious maladministration
- serious and substantial waste of public money
- a government information contravention
- a privacy contravention; or
- a local government pecuniary interest contravention.
See the DCS PID Policy for more details.