Operation Lansdowne: An investigation into allegations of serious corruption involving Victorian vocational education and training, and public transport sectors.
- Recommendations
- 5
- Report length
- 151 pages
Summary
The report's own summary: Summary of investigation and outcomes, pages 9 to 20
Generated summary: written by an AI model from the report text and checked against the cited pages.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission began Operation Lansdowne to investigate alleged serious corruption involving a TAFE training agreement, later extending it to another TAFE and V/Line.
It examined subsidised training, qualifications, procurement and recruitment, and whether institutional controls could prevent or detect improper conduct.
Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 10 · Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 12 · Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 15
IBAC found that fabricated student records were used to obtain government funding for engineering training that had not occurred.
IBAC also found inadequate oversight of training contracts and repeated departures from procurement and recruitment procedures at V/Line.
Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 13 · Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 14 · Operation_Lansdowne_special_report_081217_M6WsN389, page 15
It made five recommendations covering TAFE oversight, training verification, V/Line controls and stronger probity in public-sector recruitment.
In the body's own words
- Finding
IBAC found that V/Line’s procurement and recruitment processes had been ignored or bypassed on numerous occasions.
- Finding
IBAC found that South West TAFE’s management of the third-party training agreement with TayTell was deficient.
Findings, opinions and statements
Allegations are not findings. A commission's finding or opinion of corrupt conduct or misconduct is not a finding that a person is guilty of a criminal offence, and the commissions say so in their reports.
No findings are reproduced in this record. This does not establish that the report contains none.
Recommendations 5
Recommendation 1
The CEOs of South West Institute of TAFE and Bendigo Kangan Institute of TAFE to provide IBAC with reports by 31 December 2018 on how they have addressed the issues identified in Operation Lansdowne, including how they have strengthened systems and controls for oversighting third-party agreements, ensuring compliance with those agreements and implementing stronger controls around student proof of identify.
Recommendation 2
The Secretary of the Department of Education and Training to provide IBAC with a report by 31 December 2018 on how the Department will strengthen systems and controls in relation to TAFEs, to minimise the risk of the conduct identified in Operation Lansdowne reoccurring, including by: a. ensuring TAFEs understand their obligations under service agreements with the Department b. strengthening proof of identity requirements for Victorian students, including by reference to Australia’s National Identity Proofing Guidelines c. raising awareness within TAFEs of corruption and fraud risks, and how those risks can be mitigated d. ensuring TAFEs have robust complaint handling systems and understand requirements for appropriately internally escalating and/ or externally reporting suspected fraud and corruption.
Recommendation 3
The Department to review TAFE training delivered via other third-party agreements, to verify the legitimacy of that training in light of the corruption vulnerabilities identified in Operation Lansdowne.
Recommendation 4
The CEO of V/Line to provide IBAC with a report by 31 December 2018 on how the issues identified in Operation Lansdowne have been addressed, including how it intends to strengthen its systems and controls in relation to procurement, recruitment, and conflict of interest.
Recommendation 5
The Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, in conjunction with the Victorian Public Sector Commissioner, to review ways in which probity in public sector recruitment can be strengthened. This review should include consideration of mandating advice provided in the Victorian Public Sector Commission's Integrity in Recruitment Guidance Note, such as the conduct of thorough background checks of applicants, for public sector agencies and positions identified as high risk.
Published responses
Responses to this report have not been checked.
Notes on this record
- Tabled: Legislative Assembly 2017-12-12; Legislative Council 2017-12-12.
Coverage
This publisher
- www.ibac.vic.gov.au answered the identifying OPAXBot agent with HTTP 403 (CloudFront) on 11 November 2026, for its pages and its robots.txt. IBAC reports are read from the copies tabled in the Parliament of Victoria instead.
- IBAC publications that are not tabled (research and prevention reports, recommendation-progress pages and agency responses published only on IBAC's site) are therefore not loaded.
- Some tabled papers are listed by the Parliament without an online document (for example the Special report on Operation Sandon, available on request from the Parliament); their recommendations are not loaded.
- Findings and opinions are not extracted; read each report for them.