ASIC agrees to review the hospitality it receives

The day of the free lunch is not necessarily over for staffers at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), but they will need to be much more discerning about who is paying the bill and how much they are paying.

ASIC has accepted a recommendation from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) that it review the thresholds above which its staff will have to declare receiving hospitality from the entities they are supposed to be regulating.

An ANAO audit of ASIC’s probity management tabled in the Parliament this week made just one recommendation that: “The Australian Securities and Investments Commission review the financial thresholds for declaring hospitality in its internal register of gifts, benefits and hospitality, in the context of managing risks associated with accepting hospitality from regulated entities”.

The audit report said ASIC had agreed to the recommendation.

The recommendation came against the background of the ANAO audit finding that “ASIC personnel largely complied with requirements relating to corporate credit card use and gifts, benefits and hospitality.

However, it said there was scope for ASIC to enhance its requirements in relation to gifts, benefits and hospitality.

The ANAO report said ASIC personnel largely complied with requirements relating to corporate credit card use and gifts, benefits and hospitality.

“ASIC did not have a policy for managing senior executive remuneration until 9 November 2022. As a result, the ANAO was unable to test whether ASIC’s process for reviewing senior executive remuneration for its most recent performance period was undertaken in accordance with entity requirements,” it said. “There is evidence that the Chair was provided with information on, and approved, individual remuneration outcomes for all members of the senior executive cohort for the most recent performance cycle or review process that involved a pay rise.”

“For the ten high-value procurements reviewed by the ANAO, ASIC partly complied with the requirements established in its internal ‘Procurement guideline — probity’. The selected requirements were not met in four of the procurements (40 per cent non-compliance); only one of the selected requirements was met in four of the procurements (40 per cent partial compliance); and all four of the selected requirements were met in only two of the procurements (20 per cent compliance).”

“There is scope for ASIC to enhance its requirements in relation to gifts, benefits and hospitality,” it said.