AFSA Fraud & Corruption Control Plan 2026-28

Chief Executive Foreword

Fraud and corruption are risks that can undermine all aspects of Australian Government entities. They have the potential to seriously damage public trust and confidence in the personal insolvency (PI) and personal property securities (PPS) systems, the criminal assets management (CAM) scheme, and AFSA’s role as a regulator and administrator.

AFSA continues to have zero appetite for fraudulent or corrupt behaviour. We are committed to minimising the occurrence and impact of fraud and corruption through early identification and effective management of risks. We continue to strengthen our prevention and detection capability as part of this effort.

Maintaining the integrity of Australia’s PI and PPS systems, and CAM scheme is central to our role. Effective fraud and corruption prevention, detection and response arrangements are critical to delivering on this responsibility and to operating as a visible, modern and contemporary regulator.

The Fraud and Corruption Control Plan (the Plan) outlines AFSA’s approach to managing fraud and corruption risks. It complies with the requirements of the Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Control Framework under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

All AFSA staff and contractors share responsibility for managing these risks. Suspected instances of fraud and corruption must be reported. The Plan sets out what constitutes fraud and corruption in the AFSA context, how to refer this conduct and how AFSA responds.

In line with the requirements of the Framework, the Plan will be reviewed within 2 years.

I encourage all staff, contractors and stakeholders to familiarise themselves with the Plan, actively identify and report suspected fraud and corruption, and work with us to maintain trust and confidence in the systems we are responsible for.

Tim Beresford

Chief Executive and Inspector-General in Bankruptcy

Introduction

This Plan documents the enterprise and operational approach to controlling fraud and corruption impacting AFSA and ensures compliance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Control Framework (the Framework) under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

The Framework comprises Section 10 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, the Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Policy, and Resource Management Guide 201: Preventing, detecting and dealing with fraud and corruption.

All PGPA Act entities are subject to obligations under the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022 (NACC Act).

In meeting these obligations, this Plan communicates:

• AFSA’s commitment to managing and responding to fraud and corruption risks
• its risk appetite and tolerance to fraud and corruption
• the roles and responsibilities of relevant officials and committees
• the arrangements in place - or maturing over the duration of this Plan - for preventing, detecting, responding and reporting on fraud and corruption.

Risk appetite and tolerance

AFSA acknowledges that, in administering and enforcing its regulatory functions, delivering regulatory experiences, and engaging with clients, regulated entities and service providers, it cannot avoid or prevent all fraud and corruption risks.

Risk appetite and tolerance statements have been developed to assist in the assessment, management and prioritisation of these risks:

• AFSA has zero appetite for fraudulent or corrupt behaviour that may impact the agency, the PI and PPS systems, or CAM.
• AFSA has low tolerance for unethical, fraudulent, corrupt or illegal conduct perpetrated by external entities. AFSA has low tolerance for unethical, fraudulent, corrupt or illegal conduct by AFSA staff.

This means that AFSA will, where appropriate:

• Analyse and take reasonable steps to protect the personal insolvency and personal property securities systems, and the criminal assets management scheme, by minimising the occurrence and impact of fraud, corruption and other crimes.
• Assess and investigate allegations of suspected fraud or corruption impacting the agency.
• Pursue criminal, civil, administrative and disciplinary penalties, including termination of employment.
• Seek prosecution through the courts and/or seek the recovery of funds obtained.

What is Fraud?

Fraud is defined in the Framework as ‘dishonestly obtaining (including attempting to obtain) a gain or benefit, or causing a loss or risk of loss, by deception or other means’. The conduct does not need to represent a breach of criminal law.

Fraud can be committed by parties internal and external to AFSA. A benefit or loss is not restricted to a material benefit or loss, and may be tangible or intangible. A benefit may also be obtained by a third party.

Internal fraud is committed by AFSA staff or contractors, and can include:

• falsely claiming employee benefits
• falsifying qualifications
• theft or misuse of information (e.g. government information and personal records)
• accounting fraud (e.g. false invoices, misappropriation)
• misuse of corporate credit cards (e.g. for personal use)
• causing a loss, avoiding or creating a liability
• accessing and disclosing sensitive information without authorisation
• using government assets (e.g. property, equipment, material or services) for personal gain.

External fraud is committed against AFSA (including programs or systems administered by AFSA) by external individuals, and can include:

• the provision of intentionally false or misleading information to AFSA for financial gain, such as in a Statement of Affairs
• the creation of false registrations on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) for personal gain or to cause loss to a third party
• procurement-related fraud, such as price inflation, price-fixing, bid-rigging or delivering substandard good or services.

What is Corruption?

Consistent with the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022, the Framework defines corruption as any conduct that does or could compromise the integrity, accountability or probity of public administration, including:

• any conduct of any person (whether or not a staff member of a Commonwealth agency) that adversely affects, or that could adversely affect, either directly or indirectly:
  • the honest or impartial exercise of any staff member’s powers as a staff member of a Commonwealth agency; or
  • the honest or impartial performance of any public official’s functions or duties as a public official;
  • any conduct of a staff member of a Commonwealth agency that constitutes or involves a breach of public trust;
  • any conduct of a staff member of a Commonwealth agency that constitutes, involves or is engaged in for the purpose of abuse of the person’s office;
  • any conduct of a staff member of a Commonwealth agency, or former staff member of a Commonwealth agency, which constitutes or involves the misuse of information or documents acquired in the person’s capacity as a staff member of a Commonwealth agency.

Examples of corruption impacting AFSA may include:

• abuse of office (e.g. provision of sensitive information to facilitate external fraud committed by others; modifying PPSR information for personal gain or benefit of others)
• biased decision-making by AFSA officials (e.g. preferential treatment during tender evaluation/procurement process, exercising legislative powers in absence of declared conflicts of interest)
• nepotism (e.g. favouritism towards family or friends), particularly in relation to recruitment or procurement processes
• collusion for personal gain (e.g. preferential treatment to a third party, acceptance of bribes).

Key responsibilities for fraud and corruption control

All AFSA staff and contractors share responsibility for mitigating the risk of fraud and corruption impacting the agency. All staff and contractors are expected to understand what constitutes fraudulent and corrupt conduct and know what to do if they suspect it.

The following bodies and positions have specific responsibilities in managing AFSA’s fraud and corruption control environment:

Code of conduct

The APS Values, Code of Conduct and Employment Principles shape AFSA’s culture and integrity by setting clear expectations for performance and standards of behaviour. All staff are expected to behave in a way that upholds and meets these standards and aligns with APS values.

If a staff member is found to have breached the Code of Conduct, a sanction delegate may decide to impose a sanction under section 15 of the Public Service Act 1999. Available sanctions range from a reprimand to termination of employment.

Managing fraud and corruption risks

AFSA identifies, manages and mitigates fraud and corruption risks through a range of mechanisms. These include:

• contributing to AFSA’s broader understanding and awareness of fraud and corruption risk through Threat Risk Assessments
• identifying risks within AFSA projects through the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office
• undertaking program-based fraud and corruption risk assessments
• reviewing AFSA’s enterprise fraud and corruption risk assessment biennially.

Insider threat

AFSA recognises that malicious insiders pose a risk to trust and confidence in the integrity of its operations and the effective administration of the PI and PPS systems, and the CAM scheme. The actions of malicious insiders can often be of a fraudulent or corrupt nature and commonly facilitates criminal activity by individuals or entities external to the organisation where the malicious insider works.

To mitigate insider threats, AFSA implements a range of measures, including pre-employment screening, requirements for conflict of interest declarations (real, apparent or potential), security clearances, and the sharing of intelligence.

Emerging risks

In assessing fraud and corruption risks impacting AFSA, it is important to consider not only current risks but also emerging risks that are likely to impact the agency in the short term (next 2 years).

Two key emerging risks have been identified:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): advancing AI capabilities are expected to increase risk to agencies and private sector entities by enabling more sophisticated, scalable and personalised attacks
• Identity-enabled fraud: the risk of identity-enabled fraud facing regulatory agencies is increasing as criminals use stolen identity credentials and documents to facilitate scams and data breaches.

AFSA’s Fraud and Corruption Control Framework

AFSA’s Fraud and Corruption Control Framework (AFSA’s framework) is consistent with all legislative requirements of the Australian Government. It is implemented using the prevention, detection and response model.

Prevention

Prevention measures reduce the likelihood of fraud by preventing or limiting the extent of the risk occurring. These measures are focused toward increasing fraud and corruption awareness, encouraging reporting of suspected incidents and implementing effective mitigation controls, resulting in reduced incidents of fraud and corruption.

Prevention measures within AFSA include:

• building and promoting a pro-integrity culture across AFSA by ensuring AFSA staff and managers understand frameworks, processes and support systems available to help them act with confidence and uphold AFSA’s values
• delivering communications and training to build awareness of fraud and corruption, and how to report it
• undertaking fraud and corruption risk assessments to identity and mitigate fraud and corruption risks, assess the effectiveness of controls and include outcomes in regular reporting activities.

Detection

Detection measures help to identify when fraud has occurred. AFSA employs a range of measures and continues to strengthen its capability to detect fraudulent and corrupt behaviour. While not all incidents can be detected, AFSA takes all reasonable measures to identify such conduct.

Measures used to detect fraudulent or corrupt conduct include:

• dedicated reporting mechanisms to receive both internal and external tip-offs, including anonymous reports
• dedicated reporting channel for reporting Public Interest Disclosures
• internal and external audits
• systematic reviews and analysis or fraud and corruption referrals to identify possible trends
• system-based monitoring of higher-risk areas
• intelligence sharing and collaboration across government.

Response

Response measures modify and mitigate the consequence and/or rectify a failure after it has been discovered. These measures include assessment, investigation, analysis, referral and recovery activities to respond to suspected fraudulent or corrupt conduct.

AFSA’s response activities include:

• assessing all allegations to determine an appropriate response
• pursuing disciplinary, administrative, civil, or criminal actions as appropriate
• pursuing recovery of fraudulently or criminally obtained benefits, where appropriate
• when an investigation is deemed appropriate, ensure investigations are undertaken in accordance with the Australian Government Investigations Standard
• referring matters to the Australian Federal Police or the National Anti-Corruption Commission (in line with obligations under the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022).

Reporting fraud and corruption

AFSA staff and contractors must report incidents of suspected fraud and corruption. Reports remain confidential. AFSA also provides anonymous tip-off forms and supports the Public Interest Disclosure (PID) scheme to offer further protections and support.

The table below details the ways that suspected fraud, corruption or serious misconduct can be reported.

When making a report of suspected fraud, corruption or serious misconduct, the following information should be included:

• details of the AFSA employee, contractor or relevant business area suspected of involvement
• details of the suspected activities, including what, how, when and where it occurred
• contact details, to enable follow-up if further information is required (provision of contact details is optional).

Public Interest Disclosure

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (PID Act) seeks to promote integrity and accountability by:

• encouraging the disclosure of information about alleged serious wrongdoing
• protecting those who make such disclosures
• ensuring that disclosures are properly actioned.

AFSA will act on disclosures as appropriate and will support and protect disclosers and witnesses from reprisal action. As required by legislation, a person must be a current or former public official to report under the Public Interest Disclosure scheme. Personal work-related conduct is not disclosable unless it could constitute reprisal or is otherwise significant.

A public interest disclosure may be made by:

• emailing pid@afsa.gov.au
• disclosing to a manager
• speaking directly to an AFSA Authorised Officer (appointed roles under the PID Act).

Where a discloser believes that it is not appropriate for an agency to handle a disclosure, a disclosure can be made to the Commonwealth Ombudsman at pid@ombudsman.gov.au.

National Anti-Corruption Commission

The National Anti-Corruption Act 2022 outlines mandatory reporting obligations for agency heads and public interest disclosure officers to refer allegations of serious or systemic corruption to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). The AFSA Fraud and Integrity team supports the agency head in meeting these obligations.

Staff may choose to report serious or systemic corruption to the NACC as a voluntary referral. However, the NACC may choose not to investigate a corruption issue and, in those cases, may refer matters back to AFSA.

Fraud and corruption reporting requirements

Regular reporting is an important part of effective governance and provides assurance over the appropriateness of AFSA’s control arrangements to prevent, detect and respond to fraud and corruption. Reporting also increases transparency and trust that AFSA is appropriately identifying and dealing with fraud and corruption.

The table below details the internal and external reporting arrangements:

Transparency in investigation activities

AFSA treats all parties involved in an investigation with respect and courtesy and makes sure all investigation activities are undertaken in accordance with relevant legislation, government policies and standards, including:

• Australian Government Investigations Standard 2022
• Crimes Act 1914
• Criminal Code 1995
• Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013
• National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022.