An auditor-general’s report has found a long list of WA public sector agencies that could be employing inappropriate or unqualified staff.

The review found that issues with verifying the identity and credentials of employees means many can slip through the gaps.

Public agencies including the departments of Racing, Gaming and Liquor, Regional Development and Environment Regulation were included in the report by auditor-general Colin Murphy.

A number of those received “poor” ratings for their policies and procedures, staff screening and monitoring of existing employees, and all those reviewed were found to have room to improve.

The problems included failures to confirm the identity of employees, verify qualifications of existing staff, and even conduct criminal background checks.

The report found 16 per cent of employees across the 10 agencies investigated had not had their identity or right to work verified.

“We found many instances where the identity, qualifications, right to work in Australia and criminal backgrounds were not checked with the risk that inappropriate or unqualified staff are employed,” the report stated.

“All 10 agencies need to improve their practices in some way, with only one agency rated as good against any of our three lines of inquiry.”

The investigation looked 553 staff across 10 agencies. It found that criminal background checks were performed on just 263 people in that group.