Corruption suspects are “gaming” the system in Victoria by fleeing the country and withholding evidence from the state’s anti-corruption commission because it lacks the powers and finances it needs.

The chief executive of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, Alistair Maclean told The Age that, despite the success of the recent investigation into the Casey land scandals, there were big gaps in the state’s integrity framework that the Andrews government needed to plug.

Outgoing chief executive of Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Alistair Maclean, who is leaving after seven years at the helm. Credit:Simon Schluter

In an interview to mark his retirement from IBAC this week, Mr Maclean also said when he had started seven years ago, his organisation faced widespread denial that serious corruption existed in Victoria and claims that IBAC would be a “toothless tiger”.

“There was this conceit, or this sense of exceptionalism, that somehow Victoria wasn’t the same as NSW or Queensland and didn’t have the same risk profile for corruption, either in the police, or the public sector,” he said.