Saturday, December 10, 2011

Fraud

News broke yesterday afternoon that a man is wanted for allegedly defrauding Queensland Health upwards of $16 million. You can read about it here.

His activities were discovered by a woman in my office (Her nickname is now Beverly Brockovich). She simply checked what happened to a $10 million payment that wasn't supposed to be processed yet. It had gone to an incorrect vendor, and when she did a quick ABN search, discovered he was the owner of the business. He didn't cover his tracks very well at all, did he?

This money wasn't destined for travel costs, or office refurbishments or even payroll. The money he has stolen was to go to charities, universities and other non-government organisations. The money was to be used for sexual health promotion, better nutrition initiatives in far north Queensland, drug rehabilitation programs, and indigenous health program just to name a few.

It sickens me that he has ripped off some of the most needy organisations and individuals in Queensland. It sickens me even more that some of these programs are now under threat because Health simply doesn't have a spare 16 mill lying about to prop up the budgets.

Heads will roll internally - a fuck up this bad can't go unpunished, but it will be interesting to see who exactly will be fired. It will also be interesting to see what happens to internal processes - how will they stop this from ever happening again?

I'm thankful that I finished up yesterday (I have officially begun my retirement!) - life is going to get very tough for my former colleagues over the next few months.

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