2021-12-13 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   13 DECEMBER 2021




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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                                13 DECEMBER 2021

             COUNCIL POLICY

             What is fraud?

             Fraud can take many forms. Fraud is any deceitful conduct or omission to cause actual or potential
             loss to any person or entity for the benefit of any person or entity. In other words, it is a dishonest
             activity normally characterised by deliberate deception to facilitate or conceal the misappropriation of
             tangible or intangible assets.’ The risk of fraud may be:
                  e   {Internal (performed by an employee or contractor of Council); or
                  e   External (performed by a customer or an external service provider or a third party).
             Fraud can relate to theft, false representations, concealment, destruction and unauthorised use of
             information. In complex fraudulent activity, there may be collaboration between employees, contractors
             and/or external service providers.”
             For education purposes, examples of fraud are outlined below. It is important to note that the below
             lists of examples are not exclusive and as such Council will use legislation and other measures to
             determine on a reasonable basis if information provided can be classified as fraud.
             Internal fraud examples include, but not limited to:
                 e   falsely recording work time to gain additional flex-time or over payment of wages
                 e   failing to declare applications for leave
                 e   misuse of work credit card i.e. not using the card for business purposes
                 e   non-authorised use of equipment, property or services
                 e   using work resources for personal gain, including work vehicles for personal advantage/gain
                 e   using work resources for commercial purposes
                 e   running a private business during work hours
                 e   using Council information to gain a personal advantage
                 e   using personal relationships to gain an advantage in recruitment/procurement processes
                 e   Misappropriation or misdirection of remittances received by Council from a debtor (accounts
                     receivable fraud)
                 e   failure to remove a former employee from the payroll system, whose wages are deposited into
                     the fraudsters bank account
                 e   claiming benefits where the individual or entity is not entitled to (this includes misuse of leave
                     and/or work time and unentitled accruing, and use, of flex-time)
                 e   creation of a ‘ghost’ employee whose wages are deposited into the fraudsters bank account
                 e   theft of cash or assets (including plant and equipment)
                 e   theft of intellectual property or other information
                 e   lodgement of a false claim against council e.g. workers compensation or public liability
                 e   destroying or removing records without approval for personal gain or to conceal fraudulent
                     activity
                 e   making false statements or altering signatures or other information and materials so as to

             ' Crime and Corruption Commission, Fraud and Corruption Control: Best Practice Guide, 2018, p. 1.
             2 Standards Australia, AS8001:2008 Fraud and Corruption Control, 2" edn.
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