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Fraud costs Australia nearly 390 million USD since 2011: report

Xinhua, July 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Fraudulent applications for government-funded programs has cost Australia nearly 390 million U. S dollars since 2011, a new crime report revealed on Friday.

The Australian Institute of Criminology released the report, called "Fraud Against the Commonwealth: Report to Government", which detailed from 2010-11 until 2012-13, more than a quarter of a million incidents of suspected cases were recorded by the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Center (FAC Center).

The report said the majority of the fraud revolves around people wrongly claiming government benefits such as child care welfare, tax cuts for business, pensions and other government social welfare schemes.

The FAC Center was established last year by the Australian Federal Police, and Minister for Justice Michael Keenan said Friday that new information will mean fraud on this scale will never again happen in Australia.

He said that 256,866 recorded cases were proving to be an intolerable burden on the government and perpetrators would be brought to justice.

"Perpetrators of fraud are on notice, you will be caught, the Commonwealth will utilize every resource at its disposal to tackle fraud head on," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile Adam Tomlinson, director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said the information passed onto the government would help combat fraud by identifying risks and control measures.

"I am confident that the information presented in this report will assist in identifying emerging areas of risk and enabling new and effective fraud control measures to be constructed," he said in the report.

The report said that external fraud made up 133,969 cases in 2013 compared to just 1,685 cases of internal fraud.

External fraud refers to cases involving the claim of financial benefits and, between 2011 and 2013, the number of external fraud cases increased by more than 20 percent.

Keenan said that since the formation of the FAC Center, AFP investigations have busted a number of illegal claims which made up the bulk of fraud against the Commonwealth government.

He also said that up to 40 percent of government entities have experienced one or more incidents of fraud. Endi