Australia deepens collaboration with international partners to combat public sector fraud

Fraud is a growing threat for jurisdictions internationally and strong networks are key to addressing this global challenge. Between 11-15 September 2023, 6 Australian delegates from the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and the Australian Federal Police attended the International Public Sector Fraud Forum (IPSFF) Summit in London. This summit brought together experts from the Five Eyes alliance (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) to share successes and discuss challenges in each country’s efforts to deal with fraud.

Since its start in 2018, the IPSFF has enabled member countries, including Australia, to both contribute and leverage international experience and good practice in combatting fraud, helping to strengthen capability across our respective public sectors. The IPSFF recognises that fraud is a constantly evolving threat that does not stop at national borders and that international cooperation, intelligence sharing, and exchange of expertise is required to counter the threat.

A key theme highlighted during the 2023 summit was the increasing focus and investment by governments across the world on fraud prevention, in particular through better policy and program design, strengthening control frameworks and leveraging data and analytics.

Key contributions from Australia during the summit included:

• Mick Allsopp from the ACIC sharing information about the newly formed Fraud Fusion Taskforce and how it is helping to strengthen the counter fraud environment from the ground up.
• Brett Martin from the ATO discussing the challenges of fraud protection and system integrity in a digital future and setting out a strategy for a whole-of-system approach to external fraud risk management.
• Chris McDermott from the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre presenting on the new IPSFF Fraud Control Testing Framework and how it can help public sector organisations proactively uncover vulnerabilities and strengthen their fraud controls.

The United Kingdom presented on the new Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), which is modernising the fraud and error response in the UK public sector. This included the PSFA showcasing;

• how the UK cross-government counter fraud profession continues to develop standards and capability across the public sector
• how the new risk, threat and prevention service will support ministerial departments and public bodies in understanding the risks and threats they face, and mitigating these risks through controls, prevention and deterrence activity
• how the data and intelligence service continue to join-up public and private sector data to tackle fraud and economic crime, leading to hundreds of millions of pounds of savings for the taxpayer
• how the performance, assurance and review function has developed an approach to fraud prevention measurement, and assesses the capability of public bodies to combat fraud
• how the new enforcement unit is building an added-value response capability for the UK public sector.

Others from across the UK public sector also contributed to the summit, including:

• the Department of Work and Pensions showcasing how they are driving much more fraud prevention with data driven analytics
• the NHS Counter Fraud Authority outlining their new strategy to tackle fraud in health
• the National Audit Office leading a discussion on lessons learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

New Zealand spoke about the successes they’ve achieved in building counter fraud capability in the public sector through the SFO’s Counter Fraud Centre. This demonstrated the outsized impact that a centralised counter fraud function can have in leveraging and distributing international best practice to support counter fraud efforts across the public sector.

Canada shared their successes in countering fraud at both the Canada Revenue Agency and Services Canada. This included:

• Canada Revenue Agency building a new External Fraud Risk Management Division that is using a variety of innovative techniques to protect Canadian’s revenue and social, economic and incentive programs from fraud.
• Services Canada using advanced data analytics, including signals-based detection to counter threats. This has resulted in suspicious payments now being stopped relatively quickly and with less human effort.
• Services Canada also demonstrated how they are quantifying preventative fraud savings in Canada's Employment Insurance Program.

The United States contributed a broad range of topics during the summit, including presentations on:

• Fighting fraud in Health and Human Services programs for American Indian and Alaska native communities. This proceeded a discussion on how fraud affects indigenous communities and the unique challenges governments face in safeguarding these communities from fraud.
• Challenges and opportunities in the use of fraud estimation to incentivise fraud risk management.
• A forward look at the challenges and opportunities in the US Federal Inspector General community.

Australia continues to contribute to international best practices and policy by sharing the successes and failings of different approaches to dealing with fraud. The IPSFF has enabled its members to learn from each other and develop world-leading guidance and tools that have proved instrumental in fighting public sector fraud, bribery, and corruption. This 2023 summit continued such work by hosting collaborative discussions on fraud, ranging from how fraud uniquely affects indigenous communities to how we can safeguard system integrity in a digital future.

Australia has also been a key contributor to many of the IPSFF’s international guidance products, including guides on the total impacts of fraud and how to manage fraud in emergency situations. On the fourth day of the summit, UK Minister of State Lucy Neville-Rolfe announced the publishing of a new IPSFF Fraud Control Testing Framework, which was a collaborative effort between the Australian and UK governments, with key contributions from Canada and the US. This framework has been designed to support public sector organisations to proactively test and strengthen their control environments, and ultimately reduce their vulnerabilities to fraud.

Strengthening international cooperation through the IPSFF

During the summit, members of the IPSFF reaffirmed their commitment to the principle aim of bringing countries together to facilitate knowledge sharing. Experts from within the Australian Government will continue to play a key role in deepening collaboration across borders in support of our shared global mission to combat public sector fraud.

Author: Chris McDermott