Two employees of Victoria’s building regulator have been changed with corruption related offences.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) has announced that two staff of the Victorian Building Authority have been charged with criminal offences.

The charges follow searches that were conducted under warrant at a number of premises.

The charges relate to the assessment of builder registrations in exchange for financial benefits.

These actions are a result of IBAC’s Operation Perseus – an investigation into allegations of corrupt conduct at the VBA related to the assessment of builder registrations, in exchange for a financial benefit.

IBAC said it would not provide further comment at this stage as the investigation is ongoing.

The names of the two workers have not been revealed.

In a statement, the Victoria Building Authority said that it referred suspicious activity to IBAC in June last year and had supported IBAC with its investigation.

“The VBA referred suspicious activity to IBAC in June last year and has been supporting them with their investigation ever since,” the VBA’s statement noted.

Today IBAC notified us they have charged two employees with criminal offences and are investigating a third.

The employees involved have been stood down by the VBA with immediate effect.

The VBA is now reviewing any impacts of this alleged activity to ensure the integrity of our systems.

We will not be commenting any further while the IBAC investigation and court processes are ongoing.

The latest developments come as the VBA has been under fire over recent years amid allegations of a poor workplace culture and unrealistic workloads for its inspectors.

In March, the Victorian Government announced that the VBA’s board would be replaced by chief executive officer Anna Cronin who has been appointed as the sole Commissioner.

Cronin has been leading efforts to initiate major change into the regulator’s performance and culture.

 

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