Corruption Matters - November 2021 | Issue 58
Preventing corruption during a global pandemic
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in February 2020, the work of the ICAC has successfully adapted to meet its statutory obligations, including its requirement to actively prevent corruption and educate the NSW community and public sector.
Lewis Rangott, ICAC’s Executive Director of Corruption Prevention.
Advice
An important part of the ICAC’s work is the provision of corruption prevention advice. Staff of the ICAC’s Corruption Prevention Division are available to discuss any integrity-related topic but some of the more common questions we receive relate to:
- management of conflicts of interest and gifts
- corruption risks in procurement, including direct negotiations
- employment screening and CV fraud
- common red flags and control failings
- corruption risk assessments
- policies and procedures.
The ICAC’s statutory functions include the requirement to promote the “integrity and good repute of public administration”, so ICAC staff are able to provide more general advice about topics such as ethics, probity and ensuring the right tone at the top.
Corruption prevention advice is mainly requested by NSW public officials but the ICAC encourages private sector personnel and members of the public to use the free service.
To seek advice or find out more, please contact us at icac@icac.nsw.gov.au.
Executive short course in March 2022
For a number of years, the ICAC has partnered with the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) to deliver a four-day executive course titled “Strategic responses to corruption”. The course was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic but arrangements are currently underway to host the course in Sydney in March 2022.
A number of scholarship positions are available and the ICAC has invited NSW public sector agencies to submit nominations. While positions are limited, any public official can apply to attend the course.
For more information, see here or email workshops@icac.nsw.gov.au.
Workshops and training
Following the initial COVID-19 restrictions in early 2020, the ICAC’s workshop offerings were converted to online courses. In 2020–21, we delivered just over 100 workshops, primarily via videoconference. This form of delivery has proved to be convenient and safe for many participants, especially those based in non-metropolitan areas.
Further information about the ICAC’s workshops can be found here or by emailing workshops@icac.nsw.gov.au.
The ICAC’s YouTube channel also contains a number of short, explainer videos that public sector agencies can use for their own training purposes. These can be used for induction, training or when onboarding new suppliers.
Revised Australian Standard on Fraud and Corruption Control
In June 2021, Standards Australia released its revised standard on Fraud and Corruption Control (AS 8001:2021). The updated standard replaces the 2008 version. The ICAC was represented on the working group that developed the new standard.
The standard makes reference to the importance of having key personnel with responsibility for controlling the risk of fraud and corruption. Among other things, the standard emphasises the importance of top management commitment and having a fraud and corruption control function that is “no more than two levels removed from the Chief Executive Officer or equivalent”.
The standard retains the well-known Prevent-Detect-Respond model but contains some new features, including the following:
- organisations can now seek to be formally certified as complying with the standard
- the content has been harmonised with the existing standard on Anti-bribery Management Systems (AS ISO 37001:2019) and the revised risk management standard (AS ISO 31000)
- additional focus on “technology-enabled fraud” to address the growing threat of cybercrime
- organisations should consider “pressure testing” their internal controls – the “introduction of documents, data or other action consistent with an actual fraud or correct event, to determine if existing internal controls are operating as intended – which may involve a simulated fraud event, such as submission of a “false” invoice, to determine whether the organisation’s controls are working
- guidance on performance targets that could have the unintended consequence of encouraging fraud and corruption
- enhanced requirements on due diligence or screening of potential employees and suppliers
- since it is not always possible to successfully investigate fraud and corruption, agencies should consider controls that “disrupt” the plans of perpetrators.
In October 2021, Dean Newlan, director of the Australian Institute of Professional Investigators, who chaired the working group that revised the standard, delivered a presentation on the new standard to the Corruption Prevention Network. Mr Newlan’s presentation can be found here.
The standard is a useful resource for anyone tasked with managing the risk of fraud and corruption.
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