1. Conduct below the threshold
Not all inappropriate or unprofessional conduct by a public officer is minor misconduct. The conduct must be serious enough that if proven the public officer could lose their job as part of a disciplinary process.
If the alleged conduct does not meet this level, it won’t be treated as minor misconduct.
2. Disagreement about a decision or customer service
If you believe a public sector body has treated you unfairly, provided its services poorly - for example, if someone was rude to you or failed to respond to your email this is not minor misconduct.
Ombudsman WA investigates complaints about WA government departments and local governments. It can look at administrative actions and decisions that personally impact a person. It provides a free and impartial service to help determine if an authority has followed the right processes and policies.
There are some things the Ombudsman cannot investigate. This includes decisions by courts, Ministers and some independent authorities. The Ombudsman also cannot consider complaints more than 12 months old, or cases you can take to court or a tribunal, unless there are special circumstances. For more information, please visit ombudsman.wa.gov.
Before contacting the Ombudsman, you should first raise your concerns with the authority involved.
3. Serious misconduct
Allegations involving potential serious misconduct should be made to the Corruption and Crime Commission.
Serious misconduct includes:
- a public officer acting corruptly, or corruptly failing to act, when carrying out their duties
- a public officer corruptly using their position to gain a benefit for themselves or someone else, or to cause harm to anyone
- a public officer, while acting or claiming to act in their official role, commits an offence that carries a penalty of 2 or more years’ imprisonment.
See section 4(a), (b) and (c) of the CCM Act for the precise legal definition.
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