The Western Australian Auditor General has issued a special guide to raise the standard of controlling fraud and corruption across the WA public sector.
Releasing the report Fraud Risk Management – Better Practice Guide, Auditor General, Caroline Spencer said fraud and corruption were ever present and growing in businesses everywhere, and that included the Western Australian public sector.
According to Ms Spencer, good governance is important to protect power, water, justice and transport infrastructure as well as health, education and regulatory systems from ineffectiveness, inefficiency and failure to deliver what people need when they need it.
“It is therefore critical that all levels of the Western Australian public sector commit to good governance to safeguard public assets from fraudulent or corrupt activity,” Ms Spencer said.
“To do this, every WA public sector entity must understand, in detail, the risks that occur generally within the public sector environment and the specific risks relevant to the activities they undertake.”
She said that as well as the loss of funds, fraud and corruption can result in the loss of confidence in Government institutions,
“The community needs to have faith that the public sector is serving them well for democracy to work,” she said.
“The social contract between taxpayer and Government is threatened when public money is misappropriated or other wrongdoing occurs.
“It strikes at the core of trust, accountability and transparency in Government.”
Ms Spencer said the Parts 1 and 2 of the new guide were aimed at decision makers, highlighting the importance of a fraud and corruption risk management program and the current state of fraud control in the WA public sector.
“Part 3 is aimed at guiding those responsible for developing and implementing an entity’s fraud risk management program,” she said.
She said the guide follows the establishment of the Forensic Audit team last December, the purpose of which is to uplift fraud resilience within the WA public sector.
“As has always been the case, public sector entities are responsible for the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption,” Ms Spencer said.
“This guide is intended to empower entities to do more to discharge their governance responsibilities by better controlling their risks of fraud and corruption,” she said.
“We encourage entities to use this guide along with the tools and other available resources to manage the risk of fraud against their entity.”
The Auditor General’s 56-page guide can be accessed at this PS News link.
