Home Insulation Scheme plagued by systemic fraud

Publisher
Australian National Audit Office
Date published
October 2010

Relevant impacts: Business impact, government outcomes impact, human impact, industry impact and reputational impact

Vulnerabilities within the Australian Government’s Home Insulation Scheme led to systemic fraud. By April 2010 there were 961 cases where more than one insulator had submitted a claim for payment for insulating the same premises. All were referred for further investigation.

The Australian National Audit Office found the Scheme caused:

  • serious inconvenience to households (in some cases leading to death)
  • reputational damage to the insulation industry
  • financial difficulties for many Australian manufacturers and installers
  • harm to the Australian Government’s reputation for effective service delivery.
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Related fraudster personas

The Reckless

The Reckless acts without care, responsibility or regard to the consequences of their actions by disregarding requirements, procedures, warnings or directions to gain personal benefits.

The Fabricator

The Fabricator invents or produces something that is false to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

The Deceiver

The Deceiver makes others believe something that is not true to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

Related countermeasures

Prevent duplicates

Have processes in place to prevent, identify and correct duplicate records, identities, requests or claims.

Verify information

Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.

Quality assurance checks

Conduct quality assurance activities to confirm that processes are being followed correctly and to a high standard and/or that material or goods are what they are claimed to be. Quality assurance checks not only improve processing standards, they can also detect potentially fraudulent activity and are a significant deterrent to fraud.

Data analysis

Analyse data to improve processes and controls, increase payment accuracy and find and prevent non-compliance, fraud and corruption.

Match data

Match data with the authoritative source and verify relevant details or supporting evidence. Services such as the Identity Matching Service can be used to verify identity credentials back to the authoritative source when the information is an Australian or state and territory government issued identity credential. This countermeasure is supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's Guidelines on data matching in Australian government administration.

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