Gifts and Benefits Guidance

Contents

APS officials may be offered gifts or benefits by external individuals or organisations in connection with their official roles and responsibilities. Accepting gifts or benefits can create a real or apparent conflict of interest, or be seen as an attempt to influence APS decision-making.

The Australian Public Service Commission has developed guidance and supporting resources to help agencies, employees and senior officials manage gifts and benefits appropriately to ensure public trust and integrity in the APS are maintained.

Gifts and Benefits Guidance

The Gifts and Benefits: Guidance for APS agencies, employees and senior officials provides practical advice to support consistent, risk-based decision-making across the APS. It outlines integrity standards, corruption prevention principles, and expectations for managing gifts and benefits offered in connection with APS employment.

The guidance applies to all APS personnel, including agency heads and statutory office holders. It supports officials to:

identify and manage conflicts of interest
avoid improper personal gain
recognise and respond to attempts to improperly influence public officials
identify and report suspected corrupt conduct.

The guidance includes:

Part A - Agency responsibilities

Minimum standards and better practice approaches to support agencies in managing gifts and benefits, including governance arrangements, policies, reporting mechanisms and staff support.

Part B - Employee and senior official responsibilities

Practical risk-management principles and behavioural expectations to help APS employees and senior officials make informed decisions when offered a gift or benefit.

Resources

The following resources support implementation of the guidance across the APS:

Model Gifts and Benefits Policy

A model policy that meets the minimum requirements which agencies may adopt or tailor to suit their operational and business needs.

Discussion Toolkit and Case Studies

The discussion toolkit and case studies supports conversations about gifts and benefits, raise awareness of risks, and help employees apply the guidance in practical situations.