Attribute 5: Customer and Community Awareness

The Need to Increase Community Awareness

Communicating externally is important because there are strong community expectations upon agencies for propriety and accountability over the public monies they control. The community has a right to expect that agencies have taken all reasonable and cost effective measures to prevent and detect losses to unscrupulous individuals.

62% of agencies surveyed considered this attribute not to be applicable. This undervalues a potentially valuable means of fraud control where external fraud represents a significant risk element for the agency. It also demonstrates that more can be done to respond to demands for public accountability.

Annual reports should include a clear statement from the chief executive about the agency's stance on fraud and corruption and provide an outline of its fraud control strategy.

Informing Customers and the Community

The provision of information in annual reports indicates to readers and interested parties that the agency is active and serious about the prevention of fraud. It also advertises the fact that customers are dealing with an agency which possesses values and employs sound business practices. Where competitive advantage is relevant this may constitute a valuable edge. A range of fraud-related information could be presented. For example:

• actions taken in response to identified fraud situations.
• economies and improvements to performance and service achieved as a result of improved fraud control.

There are many other potentially useful means for communicating. For example, transport and power authorities periodically mount information and publicity campaigns to illustrate the forms of fraud they are encountering and some of the detection techniques they utilise. However, it is imperative that cost effectiveness is carefully assessed for any such actions.

As a further suggested initiative, agencies will be aware that Premier's Department circulars 92-31 and 93-11 advised of the government policy requirement to address customer service standards. Whilst such standards are primarily concerned with the key substantive aspects of an agency's service delivery to its clients, it is considered that standards of propriety and ethics should form a central component of overall service standards.

Documents such as Guarantees of Service provide an excellent opportunity and means of integrating both performance and conduct standards and of communicating them to both employees and the broader community.