There are warnings that a three-year investigation of a bugging scandal that rocked the upper echelons of the NSW Police could be further delayed amid questions about the ombudsman's ability to make adverse findings.
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Acting NSW Ombudsman John McMillan has previously revealed that provisional findings have been made against 33 people in the investigation, Operation Prospect.
But in a statement published on Friday in response to a request for an update on Prospect's progress by a parliamentary committee, Professor McMillan says he expects it can be finalised in the first half of 2016.
But he also raises questions that Greens MP David Shoebridge - a committee member - believes could leave Professor McMillan facing "a raft of legal challenges".
In August, Professor McMillan took over Prospect from former ombudsman Bruce Barbour, who had run the inquiry for two years and conducted interviews under oath.
Professor McMillan says in his update that there is a question over whether he needs to engage personally with a witness in order to assess their credibility before making an adverse finding against them.
"Whether an oral hearing is required to meet the requirements of natural justice can be a less straightforward issue," he writes.
"An important consideration is whether assessment of a person's credibility is a central issue to the decision, and if so, whether that can be resolved adequately without regard to a person's demeanour in an interview or without direct interaction or questioning between a person and the decision maker".
Professor McMillan tells the committee that having considered this and other questions he does not believe "at this stage" that he needs to conduct a fresh oral hearings with people facing adverse findings.
This is because he has full access to transcripts and documents, audio evidence on which the provisional findings were based and parties have been invited to make submissions.
But Mr Shoebridge said Professor McMillan's update was "honest reporting" of the difficulties he faces.
"It makes it pretty clear that if adverse findings are made against people without giving them a fresh oral hearing, then the Ombudsman will be facing a raft of legal challenges," he said.
"No one would want to be in the shoes of the Acting Ombudsman and having to clean up the mess that is the half-finished Operation Prospect".
Prospect has been investigating the scandal over a bugging operation, codenamed Mascot, which ran between 1999 and 2001.
Mascot used a corrupt policeman, codenamed M5, to target allegedly corrupt police and a journalist with a listening device.
Deputy Police Commissioner Kaldas was bugged by Mascot, of which his fellow Deputy Commissioner, Catherine Burn, was team leader. Commissioner Andrew Scipione had oversight of Mascot for a time.
