Fraud Prevention
The Directorate’s Fraud and Corruption Framework complies with the requirements of the ACT Integrity Policy (2010) and incorporates the Fraud and Corruption, Prevention and Response Plan. The Director-General’s Financial Instructions (Integrity and Reporting) and the School Management Manual (Fraud Control and Prevention) describe the fraud and corruption control processes for undertaking risk assessments, delivering education and awareness programs, and recording and reporting fraud.
The Fraud and Corruption, Prevention and Response Plan covers the period 2016 to 2018. Risks identified in the Plan and mitigation strategies are reported to the Director-General and the Audit Committee. This ensures that the potential for fraud or corruption is mitigated with appropriate controls.
The Director of the Governance and Community Liaison Branch is the Directorate’s Senior Executive Responsible for Business Integrity Risk (SERBIR).
The SERBIR reports to the Director-General on matters of fraud and integrity and also reports to the Audit Committee.
The Directorate, in conjunction with the Australian Education Union, has developed the Teachers’ Code of Professional Practice. A copy is made available to all new teachers, including casual teachers, on commencement. All new teachers are also required to undertake online training on the Code as part of their induction program.
The general obligations of public employees applying to all ACT Public Service staff are outlined in Section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994 (PSM Act), a copy of which is provided with any application for employment in the Directorate. These obligations are supported by the ACT Public Service Code of Ethics (Code of Ethics).
Any person applying for employment with the Directorate is required to acknowledge that they have read and will comply with the provisions of Section 9 of the PSM Act, Section 153(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) and Section 244 of the PSM Act. They are also required to acknowledge the consequences of breaching these requirements. Nothing in this acknowledgement is taken to discourage the disclosure of conduct that is “disclosable conduct” within the meaning of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012.
The PSM Act, the PSM Standards, the Code of Ethics and the Teachers’ Code of Professional Practice are all available on the Directorate’s website and intranet.
There are two instances of possible fraud being investigated within the Directorate in the 2017-18 financial year and the matters are continuing.
For further information contact:
Director, Governance and Community Liaison
(02) 6207 2990
Fraud Prevention in Early Childhood Sector
Unlawful conduct in the family day care sector is a national issue. Family day care services and providers represent a disproportionate number of compliance matters for the ACT Regulatory Authority, CECA.
The ACT has applied enormous effort to work pro-actively with the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training, and other state and territory Regulatory Authorities to prevent fraudulent activity and remove non-compliant providers from the sector. New strategies and persistence is paying off with a number of operators being closed down and not re-emerging.
From 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018, 19 compliance actions were taken against family day care providers, services or individual educators. Compliance actions range from administrative letters, to conditions on service or provider approval, enforceable undertakings, emergency action notices, compliance directions, compliance notices, suspension or cancellation of services and prohibition of individuals.
In an attempt to minimise the number of non-compliant providers in the sector, the ACT Regulatory Authority has significantly tightened approval procedures for family day care applicants. From January 2017 to 30 June 2018 there have been 19 applications for family day care provider and service approvals. Of those, six were refused provider approval and four were refused service approval. Three new ACT providers and three new family day care services were approved by the Regulatory Authority.
For further information contact:
Director, Early Childhood Policy and Regulation
(02) 6207 1114