Australia contributes to international leading practice

Andrew Walter and Chris McDermott from the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) and Jen Evans from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently travelled to London to attend the International Public Sector Fraud Forum (IPSFF). We spoke to Chris about the forum and his key insights.

What is the IPSFF and what was your role in the meetings?

The IPSFF brings together counter fraud experts from the ‘5 Eyes’ nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US). This year’s forum involved meetings over five days to share leading practices in finding and fighting public sector fraud. Andrew, Jen and I represented Australia at the forum, bringing our country’s perspective and experiences to the table.

Getting those international perspectives sounds really valuable. What were some of the topics discussed?

We covered a range of subjects that are of common interest across the five nations, such as strategies to achieve greater investment in counter fraud and the use of data analytics to find and fight fraud and Australia made a big contribution to this year’s forum. Jen Evans presented on Operation Ashiba - serious and organised fraud in the Australian context. I also presented on the human cost of fraud and pressure testing.

What was your highlight of IPSFF?

I really like the forum’s practical focus, and its ability to produce useful guidance that cuts across jurisdictions. This year the forum has published four new pieces of guidance We now have these products up on our website. We also agreed on future products that IPSFF members will develop over the next 12 months, so stay tuned!