Hon. Dr Lockwood Smith MP
National Party Immigration Spokesman

26 June 2007

Critical report on immigration identity fraud

A critical report on immigration identity fraud shows the Department of Labour is failing to get even the basics right, says National’s Immigration spokesman, Dr Lockwood Smith.

“The Auditor-General’s report makes 15 recommendations to the Department of Labour and identifies numerous areas for improvement.”

The report found:

- The Department does not have a specific plan for how it will manage the detection of identity fraud.

- …there is little training that is specific to the detection role.

- The Department does not store all client identity information electronically, so it is difficult for staff to compare information on current applications.

- The Department has not evaluated the effectiveness of its detection system because of the lack of historical data.

- [Dedicated fraud investigators] receive only limited training that is specific to the immigration environment.

- The Department does not have tracking systems that indicate the timeliness of an investigation or the conversion rate from investigation to prosecution, and it has a significant backlog of cases to investigate.

The report also found that a system to enhance the prevention of fraud, which was due to completed last month, has still not been implement throughout the department.

“No matter how you look at it, this report is highly critical and of great concern,” says Dr Smith.

“In February this year, out of nearly 600 cases, 384 had not been allocated to someone to investigate. This alone is a serious shortfall.

“If the Immigration Minister is truly serious about tackling immigration identity fraud he’ll do more than just welcome the report.”

ENDS

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