Council To Toughen Fraud Policy

May 17, 2016

The South Burnett Regional Council is expected to toughen its policy for managing fraud and corruption risks at Wednesday’s monthly Council meeting.

The move comes in response to a report from the Queensland Auditor-General last June which recommended all Queensland councils develop, revise or update their policies and procedures for fraud and corruption management.

The Auditor-General found that in a five year period between 2009 and 2014, fraud had cost the State’s councils $8.6 million.

Of the 194 confirmed cases, 18 (9.3 per cent) were greater than $10,000, and two alleged fraud cases were for more than one million dollars.

The report, which surveyed all 77 councils, found one unidentified council in its study accounted for 42 per cent of all alleged and confirmed frauds.

The Auditor-General referred that council to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The report also found that 65 per cent of councils did not have a fraud or corruption control plan or similar document in place.

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) was critical of the report when it was released, saying the $8.6 million in confirmed fraud losses needed to be judged against total council expenditures of $36 billion during the five year study period.

“We believe systems councils have in place are largely working in that confirmed fraud cases were detected and dealt with,” LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said.

“Risk management strategies, increased internal audit function requirements, registers of interest and disclosure of conflicts of interest and material personal interests, with significant penalties for breaches, are all means by which fraud can be limited and controlled.”

Mr Hallam said there would always be individuals who would attempt to take advantage of the system, but there was no evidence of any systemic failure.

Today South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell said while the SBRC had never had a single incident of fraud since it was formed in 2008, he thought hardening the Council’s existing anti-fraud measures was prudent.

“We have an internal audit committee and all our accounts are externally audited every year by the Department of Local Government,” Mayor Campbell said.

“Even so, good governance means we should always make things as hard as possible for potential wrong-doers, and I think it’s our responsibility to do that in line with the Auditor-General’s recommendations.”