Ministerial staff in South Australia are appointed outside merit-based recruitment processes and do not undergo thorough pre-employment screening or security checks, leaving the government exposed to significant corruption risks. This report makes recommendations to the Premier to improve weaknesses in the governance of ministerial staff.

Good governance requires rules, expectations and lines of accountability to be clearly set out, understood and observed. This report argues this is not the case for ministerial staff in the South Australian Government today. 

This report argues the governance and accountability of ministerial staff ought to be strengthened to better reflect the nature of the roles and the risks of corruption. It is important, too, that ministerial staff have an awareness of their vulnerability to corruption and can recognise attempts at being groomed or influenced. 

Recommendations

1. Review existing recruitment processes to ensure current practices align with public sector guidelines.
2. Require all ministerial staff to obtain and maintain security clearance to at least Negative Vetting Level 1. 
3. Review induction processes for ministerial staff and ensure they include education and training on the following:
   1. the Code of Ethics for the South Australian public sector
   2. obligations to report conflicts of interests and pecuniary interests
   3. corruption risks associated with the role 
4. Introduce compulsory training for ministerial advisors every 2 years, including in the Code of Ethics, and obligations to report conflicts of interests and pecuniary interests.
5. Require that all chiefs of staff provide an annual declaration that ministerial staff have met their declaration, induction and training obligations.
6. Consider developing a Ministerial Staff Code of Conduct.