All Complaints will be managed in accordance with the Sport Integrity Australia’s legislation and the National Integrity Framework Complaints, Disputes and Disciplinary Policy for the National Sporting Organisation (NSO) or National Sporting Organisation for People with a Disability (NSOD) that represents the sport.
There are five key steps that happen during the independent complaint process, these are:
Complaint Recieved
The first step is for the person making the Complaint to fill in the web form on the Sport Integrity Australia website. When the Complaint is submitted, you will receive an automatic response email to let you know that your Complaint has been submitted. If you don’t receive this email, check to make the email hasn’t gone to your spam or junk folder.
Initial Evaluation
The next step is making sure that the information you have provided meets the criteria of a Complaint (See question 'What is the difference between a Complaint and Report?'). If it does meet the criteria, the Complaint will proceed to the next stage of the process to determine the most appropriate course of action.
During this step, or others, Sport Integrity Australia may also determine that a Complaint should be referred to another organisation such as police or a regulatory body.
ASSESSMENT PROCESS
At this step, Sport Integrity Australia will seek further information so an informed decision can be made about what may have happened.
This could mean contacting the Complainant for more information, contacting any witnesses, contacting the person or organisation the allegations have been made against (the Respondent) for information, and seeking other evidence. In more serious and complex matters, the Complainant, Respondent and other witnesses may be required to participate in formal recorded interviews.
Due to the complex nature of Assessment, it is often the longest step in the Complaints Process. Sport Integrity Australia will contact the Complainant at the start of the Assessment to let them know the next steps before contacting other people involved and will endeavour to update the Complainant and other relevant parties where possible throughout the Assessment.
Sport Integrity Australia may also determine that it is more appropriate to resolve a Complaint through Alternative Dispute Resolution.
COMPLAINT OUTCOME
If a Complaint cannot be, or has not been resolved via mediation or conciliation, Sport Integrity Australia will make a Finding as to whether the alleged conduct was more likely to have occurred than not.
There are three possible outcomes for an allegation. Your Complaint could be found to be:
- Substantiated (we find it was more likely to have occurred than not).
- Unsubstantiated (we find it was not more likely to have occurred than not).
- Unable to be substantiated (relevant avenues for obtaining evidence were exhausted, but the evidence obtained was not sufficient to support a finding either way).
The outcome based on the Finding will then be:
- No Further Action (for unsubstantiated allegations, or allegations that cannot be substantiated).
- Breach Notice (for substantiated allegations).
If Sport Integrity Australia finds the allegations were more likely to have occurred than not, we will issue a Breach Notice to the Respondent. This outlines the sanction and will be sent to the sport to enforce the sanction. The sport will then manage any responses to the Breach Notice.
A sanction could be anything ranging from mandatory education to a ban from sport.
At the end of this process, Sport Integrity Australia will advise the Complainant, the Respondent and the sport of the outcome of a Complaint.
FINALISING COMPLAINT
If a Respondent was provided with a Breach notice, this can lead to two courses of action:
- The Respondent accepts the Breach Notice and accepts the sanction.
- The Respondent doesn’t accept the Breach Notice and chooses to challenge the outcome.
If the breach occurred at a national level, the matter will then be heard by the National Sports Tribunal. If the breach occurred at a lower level of the sport, the sport may apply to have the matter heard at the National Sports Tribunal, or decide to conduct an internal tribunal. At this point, you may be requested to appear as a witness in any hearing.
In these instances, the matter will be finalised through the tribunal process.