The Dubbo Mayor believes an ICAC inquiry is the only way to gain transparency about Dubbo Regional Council's handling of code of conduct complaints, and has vowed he "will not be leaving office" without ensuring matters are referred to the agency.
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An independent report by company Pinnacle Integrity has been completed, but the legal advice to council is that the full report not be made public.
A redacted version has been created and is currently with the Office of Local Government to provide approval for its release, to "ensure that Council and Councillors were not breaching their obligations under the Code of Conduct and the Procedures", according to council's manager governance and internal control Abbey Rouse.
Mayor Stephen Lawrence said he is "confident that it will be released", but believed the community would still have questions.
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"The reality of the matter is, even the release of the report is not going to answer many important questions that the community has," Clr Lawrence told the Daily Liberal.
"For example, it's not going to inform the community as to what were the underlying allegations expressed in these code of conduct complaints.
"In my view the only thing that will answer the community's questions, is a transparent and public inquiry conducted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption into code of conduct handling at Dubbo Regional Council over the term of council."
In May councillors unanimously agreed to hire Pinnacle Integrity to look into the way council had been dealing with its code of conduct complaints.
Clr Lawrence said the council CEO was the mandatory reporter to ICAC of "anything that could give rise to corrupt conduct", and that he himself could make a request.
"I haven't yet written to ICAC and requested a public inquiry. I'm going to let the existing processes work, but I certainly will not be leaving office without doing so, if full transparency has not been achieved by then."
The ICAC does not comment on whether it has received any referrals.
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