I am posting the article, but not the comments which are an interesting read, for those who can access the article. A NEW command centre has been established within the Australian Federal Police’s Canberra headquarters targeting the hundreds of cases of commonwealth government corruption reported every year. The Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre, to be announced today, involves officials from government agencies including the tax office, Customs, Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade working alongside federal police officers. There will also be unprecedented intelligence sharing between the various government departments involved, following the signing of a formal multi-agency agreement during the past fortnight. The announcement comes in the wake of revelations the Victorian Supreme Court recently issued a wide-ranging suppression order in a case involving high-ranking government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The court order, made last month but released yesterday by WikiLeaks, is “necessary to prevent prejudice to the interests of the commonwealth in relation to national security”, it states. “The purpose of these orders is to prevent damage to Australia’s international relations that may be caused by the publication of material that may damage the reputation of specified individuals who are not the subject of charges in these proceedings,” the order states. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange described the suppression order as “the worst in living memory”. “The Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public,” Mr Assange said in a statement. “This is not simply a question of the Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop must explain why she is threatening every Australian with imprisonment in an attempt to cover up an embarrassing corruption scandal involving the Australian government.” Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the new command centre was “the most recent addition to the government’s suite of measures designed to disrupt and deter serious complex fraud and corruption”. “We are focused on increasing and strengthening the ability of our agencies, at all levels, to tackle the threats of fraud and corruption against the commonwealth,” Mr Keenan said. There is presently no central body responsible for co-ordinating and responding to allegations of corruption across all federal government bodies. Led by the AFP, the new command centre will effectively triage such complaints before referring them on to investigation teams based in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. This structure builds on that outlined in the 2013 National Anti-Corruption Plan, drawn up under the previous Labor government and that detailed almost 2000 cases of alleged corruption reported by commonwealth agencies in the four years to 2010-11. In a single year during that time, commonwealth fraud controls detected almost a half-billion dollars being lost to fraud, the report said. “The threat of corruption in commonwealth procurement includes collusion between tenderers, and collusion or bribery between tenderers and officials,” it said. Among these threats, the National Anti-Corruption Plan highlighted recent cases including the Australian Wheat Board scandal. “More recently, 10 people and two Australian companies, Securency International Pty Ltd and Note Printing Australia Limited, were charged with conspiracy,” the report said. Staffed by 10 dedicated AFP officers, with an additional network of 13 assigned to the Department of Human Services and Australian Taxation Office, the anti-corruption centre also will play a role in training commonwealth agencies in fraud prevention. Dedicated Australian Crime Commission and Customs officers also will be assigned to the centre. This model, expected to be discussed by senior AFP officers at the National Public Sector Fraud and Corruption Congress in Sydney today, falls short of previous public calls for an independent federal anti-graft agency. Last month, the former head of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, David Ipp QC, told the ABC such a body should be established with the powers of a standing royal commission to compel its targets to produce evidence.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 02:17:03 +0000
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