New South Wales Consolidated Acts

NEW SOUTH WALES CRIME COMMISSION ACT 1985 - SECT 10

10 Commission may require information from certain State agencies

(1) A member may, by notice in writing served on the principal officer of an agency, or on a person who is a member, officer or employee of an agency, require that principal officer, or that person, as the case may be, to furnish to the Commission, by writing signed by that principal officer, or by that person, within the time and in the manner specified in the notice, information so specified, being information that:

(a) was acquired by the first-mentioned agency in the ordinary course of exercising its functions, or was acquired by that person in that person’s capacity as such a member, officer or employee, and

(b) is relevant to an investigation being conducted by the Commission.

(2) A member may, by notice in writing served on the principal officer of an agency, require that principal officer:

(a) to attend, at a time and place specified in the notice, before a person specified in the notice, being a member of the Commission or a member of the staff of the Commission, and

(b) to produce at that time and place to the person so specified a document or thing specified in the notice, being a document or thing that relates to the exercise by the agency of its functions and is relevant to such an investigation.

(3) If a person who is required, by a notice served on the person under this section, to furnish information, or produce a document or thing, to a person specified in the notice (in this subsection referred to as the "specified person") claims to the specified person to be entitled to refuse to furnish the information or produce the document or thing, the specified person shall:

(a) if satisfied that the claim is justified-inform the claimant that the requirement will not be insisted upon, or

(b) in any other case-inform the claimant that the specified person is not so satisfied and, if the document or thing is not produced forthwith, refer the claim to the Commission for decision under section 19.

(4) Subject to the provisions of any enactment prescribed for the purposes of this subsection, but notwithstanding any other provision of a law of the State that prohibits the divulging or communicating of information or the production of a document or thing, a person shall not:

(a) without reasonable excuse, fail to comply with a notice served on the person under subsection (1) or (2), or

(b) in purported compliance with a notice served on the person under subsection (1), knowingly furnish information that is false or misleading.

Penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

(5) Subsection (4) does not apply in such circumstances as may be prescribed.

(6) In this section:
"agency" means:

(a) a Government Department or Administrative Office,

(b) any person appointed to an office by the Governor,

(c) any statutory body representing the Crown,

(d) any officer or temporary employee of the Public Service,

(e) any person in the service of the Crown or of any statutory body representing the Crown,

(f) any person in relation to whom or to whose functions an account is kept of administration or working expenses, where the account:

(i) is part of the accounts prepared pursuant to the Public Finance and Audit Act 1983 ,

(ii) is required by or under any Act to be audited by the Auditor-General,

(iii) is an account with respect to which the Auditor-General has powers under any law, or

(iv) is an account with respect to which the Auditor-General may exercise powers under a law relating to the audit of accounts where requested to do so by a Minister of the Crown,

(g) any person entitled to be reimbursed expenses, from a fund of which an account mentioned in paragraph (f) is kept, of attending meetings or carrying out the business of any body constituted by an Act,

(h) any holder of an office declared by the regulations to be an office of a public authority for the purposes of this Act,

(i) any local government authority or any member or employee of a local government authority,

(j) the Police Force, or

(k) any person otherwise acting for or on behalf of, or in the place of, or as deputy or delegate of, any person described in any of the foregoing paragraphs.

"principal officer" means:

(a) in relation to an agency that is a Government Department or Administrative Office-the person holding office or acting as Department Head in relation to the Department or Office,

(b) in relation to any other agency:

(i) if the regulations declare an office to be the principal office in respect of the agency-the person holding or performing the duties of that office, or

(ii) in any other case-the person who constitutes the agency or, if the agency is constituted by 2 or more persons, the person who is entitled to preside at any meeting of the agency at which the person is present.