The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) has published results of its review of fraud control over local government grants concluding:

• Councils’ fraud controls for their grant programs are not always well designed and operating as intended, and in some cases, they are missing.

The report makes nine recommendations, with the most popular areas for improvement being:

• conflict of interest identification
• applications being assessed correctly against criteria
• decision documentation and reasoning
• checking grant program outcomes and how funds are used.

Other weaknesses noted included:

• lack of overarching grant policies
• gaps in fraud control frameworks
• gaps in fraud training.

None of the audited councils had consistently applied fraud controls across all their grant programs, unnecessarily exposing them to a higher risk of fraud.

It is important for councils to have effective controls for their grant programs to prevent fraud and give their communities confidence that public money is being spent as intended.

AFS’ Internal Audit team can assist your Council by reviewing your grant program or providing further information on fraud control.

You can read the full VAGO report here.