Sufficient resourcing

This control targets both internal and external fraud risks.

Examples

Examples of this control include:

adequately staffing frontline services to properly collect and verify relevant information
adequately staffing counter fraud and compliance areas to identify fraud vulnerabilities in programmes
adequately resourcing fraud detection and response employees
ensuring ICT systems have the functionality, security and capacity required to support counter fraud activities effectively.

Inadequately resourced prevention and compliance processes, checks and oversight can lead to:

potentially suspicious matters not being dealt with
frustrated employees, clients or third parties who may become motivated to commit fraud or rationalise fraudulent or corrupt behaviour
employees making errors or applying processes inconsistently due to workload pressures, leading to higher levels of non-compliance and fraud
employees not applying processes and controls correctly, such as identity authentication, which fraudsters can exploit
employees not recognising inconsistencies or red flags, e.g. someone providing false or misleading information or evidence to support a request or claim
poor management of fraud and corruption risks
employees abusing their positions of trust to commit fraud or act corruptly.

Methods to evaluate the effectiveness of this control include:

assessing the processing time for claims, registrations or other eligibility activities to ensure sufficient resourcing is in place
monitoring performance activities to ensure adequate resourcing supports effective oversight
conducting checks to see if processes are being followed properly
undertaking a quantitative analysis of staffing levels and training completion
analysing programme error rates and complaints
checking that employee training plans and performance agreements clearly show the basic training they must complete
undertaking an employee survey that includes questions on staffing levels.

Other capability, prevention, detection and response controls that can enhance this control’s effectiveness:

Types of behaviour this control is designed to mitigate:

Explore a range of controls that can be put in place to reduce the risk of fraud happening in your organisation.