The extent to which GBRMPA plans for the delivery of its investigation

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 119

7.29 In the absence of established targets and routine monitoring, the ANAO

examined the timeliness of permit-related non-compliance investigations. The ANAO’s analysis identified that around half of the 51 finalised cases were completed within a relatively short time period 10 days or less, with most of these involving incidents that proceeded directly to enforcement action as outlined earlier at paragraph 7.26. Nevertheless, the average duration of completed permit-related investigations—98 days ranging from 0 to 644 days— indicates that extended timeframes were required to finalise a significant proportion of investigations including seven that required six months or more to complete. In addition, there were eight active permit-related investigations as at December 2014 that had been underway for between 83 and 813 days.

7.30 The overall timeliness of permit-related investigations has been heavily

influenced by consistent, lengthy delays in obtaining timely information or action from areas of GBRMPA outside the FMCU—despite reminders from the FMCU. Management reports prepared by the FMCU indicate that, as at 10 April 2015, the status of 44 of the 151 open investigations into permitted activities and activities not subject to a permit had been recorded as ‘Pending Advice from Permit Compliance [EAP Section]’—including 13 investigations where the last recorded update occurred between the period October and December 2014. In particular, the documentation in case files for10 permit-related investigations involving facilities or structures examined by the ANAO does not sufficiently explain delays of months, and even years, in some cases, relating to information being provided by other areas of GBRMPA. In two cases, enforcement actions were ‘downgraded’ from advisory letters to public education measures as a direct result of the length of the investigation. Further, the records retained by GBRMPA do not indicate the reasons for the: periods of between three and nine months where no progress was made; or taking of enforcement action was delayed after the decision was made for a further three investigations. Enforcement decision-making

7.31 As noted above, FMCU’s procedural and guidance material has not clearly

established those officers within GBRMPAFMCU that are responsible for determining appropriate enforcement action for breaches of permits. In addition, on many occasions, sufficient information has not been retained to clearly identify the officer that approved the enforcement response for permit non-compliance