Department of Defence crackdown on misuse of travel cards

Relevant impacts: Financial impact, reputational impact, government system impact and security impact.

Routine checks of the Department of Defence credit card spending detected multiple incidents of Australian Defence Force (ADF) members using their Defence Travel Card for improper purposes.

One investigation found an ADF member misused their Defence Travel Card to make unauthorised transactions of approximately $30,000. They then deceived superiors as to the true purpose of the transactions and falsely reported they lost the Defence Travel Card.

In a separate incident, compliance checks of an ADF member's spending on their Defence Travel Card detected a series of questionable transactions. The subsequent investigation found the ADF member provided false receipts to reconcile the transactions.

In another separate incident, Department of Defence internal controls detected that an ADF member used a Defence Travel Card without authorisation to withdraw cash on multiple occasions, totalling $25,000.

All 3 members were convicted of fraud offences in a civilian criminal court, ordered to repay the stolen money, and discharged from the ADF.