Public servants with more than four years of experience and a low level security clearance are most likely to commit occupational fraud, according to an Australian Institute of Criminology report.
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The recently released report, which assessed three years of data supplied by 137 federal agencies, found the total financial cost of fraud was $3.2 million between 2010 and 2013.
Personal or family financial problems were the most commonly cited motivation for fraud along with greed. Other motivations included a belief it was common practice, a desire to avoid staffing cuts or an ambition to have material to protect their position.
Most departments said they did not know why the suspect committed the fraud and with some describing the suspects as malicious and determined to cause trouble or mischief.
Most suspects were aged between 25 and 34 and held APS 5 and 6 positions, although the Institute noted a relatively small sample size.
More than 7800 incidents were reported between 2010 and 2013 with all required to complete a confidential online questionnaire on fraud each year.
"Of the two employees who were alleged to have defrauded more than $300,000 one was employed at the Executive Level and the other at APS level 5 or 6," the report said.
Most fraud suspects had been working with departments for more than four years with some working for longer than six years. Their actions were most commonly discovered by internal audits or monitoring by colleagues.
"This would indicate that suspects had sufficient time to discover security weaknesses in management or other opportunities that could be used to perpetrate fraud," the report said.
During the three year period, 10 suspects held the highest security clearance possible when instances of fraud were detected.
"Of these, six were from law enforcement or national security bodies where the highest-level security clearances are most often required of staff," the report said.
Most suspects were considered to be of "good character" with a high proportion holding some level of security clearance.
"A total of 46 suspects held some level of security clearance when the alleged fraud was detected, with a further 15 suspects who had undertaken either security clearances within entities or some other form of police background check."
The most common method of fraud was the use of falsified or altered documents to obtain financial benefits, entitlements, equipment or information.
Most fraud incidents were investigated internally, although some matters were referred to police for external investigation.
"Internal fraud, although just one aspect of fraud against the commonwealth, can be particularly damaging to the organisations involved," the report said.
"Internal fraud within commonwealth entities may deplete government resources that could be used for important programs, lead to loss of employment for other staff, or damage the working environment in the organisations involved."
