The AUSIT Board of Professional Conduct (BoPC)

The BoPC has been in development for a number of years. It is an attempt to provide rigorously considered, evidence-based written opinions on matters brought to it that involve disputes, grievances, breaches of the AUSIT Code of Ethics, or other instances of professional practice that in the opinion of the applicant require examination and comment.

The BoPC is still “in development”. This means that currently (June 2006) the BoPC will receive applications and process them but without any guarantee of completion time, as these matters may also reveal where the procedures we have developed so far need refining, which then requires further work. When the procedures have reached a degree of reliability such that we can confidently predict time to complete a matter we will make a formal announcement to the membership and begin promoting the BoPC more vigorously to the general community of T&I stakeholders and end-users.

It is important to understand, before making an application, what the BoPC can and can’t do. Other than the general ability of the Institute to expel members, the BoPC has no power of enforcement. Its primary function is to provide opinions to both applicants and respondents that may enable the parties themselves to resolve a dispute that may exist, or to better understand the events that have led to the application being made. (A negative finding made by the BoPC in respect of the conduct of a practitioner however may influence that practitioner’s eligibility for certain membership categories of AUSIT).

It is important to note that in any event the BoPC, as a service offered by AUSIT, is primarily concerned with providing members with support and guidance, and would only consider punitive action in the very last resort.

A secondary function of the BoPC is to gather data on the nature of problems confronted or experienced by both practitioners and clients in the T&I industry. This data will then be made available to members in order to promote understanding and awareness of the pitfalls of professional practice, and the development of strategies that will minimise such problems.

So any person making an application to the BoPC must understand and agree that their matter, provided it is possible to do so, will have all identifying details removed and be published on the AUSIT website as a case study.

Before making an application it is also important to note that the BoPC will not deal with disputes for which there are established methods of resolution such as the courts. This would include matters involving allegations of defamation, or non-payment of invoices for example. The BoPC will only deal with matters that require expert knowledge of translation and interpreting, both theory and practice, to resolve.

Please read those matters that we have dealt with, and those applications that were rejected, before you decide to make an application to the BoPC. These are available here.

For a more detailed explanation of how the BoPC operates, please see the BoPC draft Guidelines.

If you would like to apply to the BoPC to have a matter dealt with, please fill out and send an application form, available here, and contact us at: national@ausit.org.  

This section of the website will be updated as changes are made or as new information becomes available.

Chris Poole

President

June 2006