The NSW corruption watchdog is being forced to hire temporary investigators to meet demand after last year's funding cut by the state government and has commissioned a consultant to advise it how to rectify the situation.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is preparing to ask the NSW government for a funding boost of around $2.5 million to meet the staffing shortfalls and help it take a "proactive" position on graft detection.
On Monday ICAC chief commissioner Peter Hall outlined to a parliamentary committee the impact of the agency cutting the number of investigative teams from four to three after an $800,000 funding cut in the 2016-17 budget.
Mr Hall said there were "inevitably peaks and troughs" in the level of demand on the agency.
He said the reduction in investigation teams meant "it is not uncommon in busy periods for particular investigators to be taken off one investigation team in order to help out in another".
"The result? The first investigation stops or slows down until that particular investigator returns to the former investigation team of which he or she was a member," he said.
"An inevitable consequence is that if resources cannot meet demand the pace of an investigation is likely to be reduced."
Mr Hall said that "at the moment, current demands can't be satisfactorily met by existing numbers".
"And we have been taking steps to engage people on short-term bases to handle particular investigations."
He added that the division that assesses matters for potential investigation was at times operating under "great pressure" although it was managing to operate "within required processing times".
The commission has funded from its own budget a report by consultant KPMG to advise on changes that may be required and identify "the resource demand imperatives" in investigations and assessments.
John Hoitink, acting executive director of the ICAC investigations division, estimated an additional 11 staff would be needed to ensure resources adequately met demand.
This included two strategic intelligence specialists ICAC wants to hire to help it take a "proactive" position on corruption detection, he said.
The agency's executive director of corporate services estimated the additional staff would cost $2.5 million or more.
Labor's shadow attorney general Paul Lynch, also a committee member, said it was "an extraordinary revelation from the ICAC".
"It is absolutely unacceptable that the ICAC don't have enough investigative staff to reasonably meet the demands on them," he said.
"ICAC can't be the robust anti-corruption agency that this state needs if they don't have enough staff."
Mr Lynch called on the NSW government to take "urgent" steps to fix the situation, accusing it of "punishing" ICAC for its investigations of Liberal party funding rorts before the 2011 state election.
A spokesman for Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government will continue to ensure ICAC is sufficiently resourced "to ensure the highest levels of integrity in the public sector."
The spokesman said the government will always consider requests for extra funding and in September approved an additional $843,000 following the Chief Commissioner's request.
