Minister for Finance
Acting Attorney-General
Minister for Women
Senator The Hon Katy Gallagher
The Albanese Government has released the new Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Control Framework which will come into effect on 1 July 2024.
Fraud and corruption can occur in any Australian Government body. Left unchecked they can divert resources from the Australian community, weaken our efforts to create a fairer Australia and undermine the important work of Government in developing and delivering services and programs.
The Albanese Government commenced work to update the framework following the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The amended framework now contains provisions to mitigate corruption risk and will require all accountable authorities of corporate and non corporate Commonwealth entities to take steps to prevent, detect and respond to corruption and fraud against their entities.
The new measures, which build on existing counter fraud obligations, will complement the work of the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre in preventing fraud and corruption in the Commonwealth public sector.
The amendments will take effect from 1 July 2024 and complement the Government’s ongoing work to improve integrity and maintain public trust which includes:
- establishing the National Anti-Corruption Commission (which commenced operations on 1 July 2023)
- establishing a Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, agreeing or agreeing in principle to all recommendations and taking action to implement them
- strengthening protections for public sector whistleblowers
- establishing and enforcing a robust Code of Conduct for Ministers and for Ministerial staff
- establishing an APS Integrity taskforce to identify gaps and opportunities to deliver system wide integrity improvements in the APS, and
- delivering a new Third National Action Plan under the Open Government Partnership.
The Albanese Government is committed to integrity, honesty and accountability in government. We are delivering a significant integrity reform agenda to restore public trust in government and strengthen standards of integrity in the federal public sector.
Background
The Commonwealth Fraud Control Framework was established in 2014 under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. Since its establishment, the Framework has been made up of three elements:
- the Fraud Rule, which is section 10 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, a legislative instrument binding all Commonwealth entities. It sets out the key requirements of fraud control.
- the Commonwealth Fraud Control Policy-a Government Policy binding non-corporate Commonwealth entities setting out procedural requirements for specific areas of fraud control such as investigations and reporting, and
- Resource Management Guide No. 201, Preventing, detecting and dealing with fraud-a better practice document setting out the Government’s expectations in detail for fraud control arrangements within all Commonwealth entities.
