Sufficient resourcing

Type of countermeasure

This is a prevention countermeasure. Prevention countermeasures are the most common and cost-effective way to stop fraud. They prevent or limit the size of the fraud risk by reducing the likelihood and consequences of fraud.

Summary

Adequately resourced prevention and compliance areas enable entities to perform effective countermeasures.

Allocate sufficient staffing and technical resources to enable fraud prevention and detection processes, checks and oversight.

Why this countermeasure matters

Inadequately resourced prevention and compliance processes, checks and oversight may lead to:

matters not being dealt with
frustrated staff, clients or third parties – this can motivate them to commit reckless fraud or allow them to rationalise fraudulent or corrupt behaviour
staff acting in an inconsistent way or making errors resulting in higher levels of non-compliance and fraud
staff not applying processes and controls correctly, such as identity authentication, which fraudsters can exploit
staff not recognising inconsistencies or red flags, such as someone providing false or misleading information or evidence to support a request or claim
poor management of fraud and corruption risks
staff abusing their positions of trust to commit fraud or act corruptly.

How you might apply this countermeasure

Some ways to implement this countermeasure include:

making statements that communicate fraud is an offence
making statements that communicate the entity is actively detecting fraud and acting against fraudsters
making statements that communicate most people perform a desired behaviour (e.g. do not defraud, behave honestly, report fraud etc.)
making statements that influence emotions and appeal to moral identity (e.g. fraud is not a victimless crime, fraud impacts the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community etc.)
media releases about the action taken against fraudsters.

How to check if your countermeasures are effective

Here are some ways to measure the effectiveness of this type of countermeasure:

examine the processing time of claims, registrations or other activity
monitor performance activity
conduct quality checks
conduct checks to see if processes are being followed properly
conduct staff interviews
undertake a quantitative analysis of staffing levels and training completion
analyse program error rates and complaints
confirm staff training needs assessments and performance agreements communicate minimum training requirements
undertake a staff census and ask questions relevant to staffing levels
review APS Employee Census results.

Related countermeasures

Positive workplace culture

A positive workplace culture can encourage ethical and supportive behaviours while discouraging fraudulent or corrupt activities. Staff will be less able to rationalise fraudulent or corrupt activities where a positive workplace culture exists. A culture built on honesty, transparency and integrity is a key organisational strength that can serve to reduce the risk of fraud. If weak countermeasures are the fuel, a bad culture can be the spark that ignites fraud and corruption.

Governance, accountability and oversight

Establish governance, accountability and oversight of processes by using delegations and requiring committees and project boards to oversee critical decisions and risk. Good governance, accountability and oversight increases transparency and reduces the opportunity for fraud.