General news

Dr Russell G Smith is retiring as a Principal Criminologist at the Australian Institute of Criminology in November 2020. Throughout his career, he has been a strong supporter of the counter fraud community. We were lucky enough to ask him some questions about his career and plans for the future.

Mark Cheeseman from the UK Cabinet Office shares the lessons he learnt from fighting fraud during a global pandemic. He discusses having a structure for a fraud risk assessment, understanding the environment and acting with common purpose, having the fraud conversation and having it with integrity, post event reviews and getting money back, and breaking out of our silos and sharing.

Between November 2019 and March 2020, the Centre conducted the Fraud Capability Baseline Assessment Project to capture statistics on counter fraud capability across 19 Commonwealth programs and functions. The assessments also helped participants to understand more about their fraud risks and opportunities for capability building.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been working tirelessly with its partners to protect Australia’s community. The AFP have two main Commonwealth fraud-related operations: Operation Ashiba and Operation Iris.

Grants are widely used to deliver valuable services and support to many Australians. They are also subject to significant integrity risks. Have you got some insights into fraud risks in grants administration? We want to hear from you.

The Australian Government acts fast to support Australians. It established the National Bushfire Recovery Agency to support bushfire victims and introduced many measures to support Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic. However opportunistic fraudsters are taking advantage of this quick action. In response the Centre has developed some key guiding principles to help reduce fraud during a rapid response.

The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre and the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) are working together to improve the evidence base on fraud against the Australian Government. The AIC has recently released a statistical reports which present the findings of the most recent annual census of fraud against Commonwealth entities.

Join us as we interview one of the best fraud fighters in the world.

Reflect with us on the 2019 Fraud Liason Forum.

Find out how fraudsters have been taking advantage during the COVID-19 pandemic.