Home Insulation Scheme plagued by systemic fraud
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.
Related Fraudster Personas
Related countermeasures
Have processes in place to prevent, identify and correct duplicate records, identities, requests or claims.
Verify request or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.
Conduct quality assurance activities to confirm that processes are being followed correctly and to a high standard.
Collect and analyse data to improve processes and controls, increase payment accuracy and find and prevent non-compliance, fraud and corruption.
Automatically match data with another internal or external source to obtain or verify relevant details or supporting evidence. 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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