Counter Fraud Practitioner Training Program takes out top spot

On Tuesday 21 November 2023, the Hon. Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Assistant Minister for the Public Service, delivered an address at the National Press Club in Canberra. Speaking about public service Reform, Assistant Minister Gorman highlighted the importance of the public sector embodying integrity in everything it did, including promoting a culture where individuals adopt positive risk behaviours and communicating risk across all levels. The award ceremony celebrated high calibre work across government in risk management.

Those in attendance were nominated for Commonwealth Awards for Excellence in Risk Management. These prestigious awards celebrate excellence across 2 categories: Enterprise Risk Management and Risk Initiatives.

The major award for the Enterprise Risk category was won by IP Australia. We would like to again say a big congratulations to the team at IP Australia for their excellent work in promoting a culture where individuals adopt positive risk behaviours.

We are also pleased to announce that the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre took out the major award for the Risk Initiative category. This category considers excellence in risk management relating to a specific entity program, project or service delivery initiative. The Centre won this award for our Counter Fraud Practitioner Training Program.

Accepting the award on behalf of the Centre was Director Chris McDermott and Learning and Development lead project officer Adriana Wlodarczyk. They both gave a rousing speech about the challenge fraud risk presents for the public sector and the Australian community, the work of the Centre to strengthen counter fraud capability, and the approach the team took to develop the training program and the very positive reaction of our stakeholders.

It was great to see this important initiative recognised. The training program is critical to the mission of the Centre as it helps train our officials to manage fraud risk in a wide range of government programs and in turn helps us deliver for the Australian people. The practical approach to embedding counter-fraud knowledge and capability supports broader efforts in progressing the government’s integrity agenda.

The training program would not have been possible without the committed and tireless work from the team, as well as significant input from our domestic and international experts since the Centre’s establishment in 2019.

The Centre is excited to announce that we will continue offering this award-winning training program in 2024 to Commonwealth government officials engaged in fraud prevention and corruption control for their organisation. We are now seeking expressions of interest in these upcoming programs.

For further information on the program and how to apply for upcoming training opportunities throughout 2024, please contact info@counterfraud.gov.au.

Author: Adriana Wlodarczyk