The Public Trustee has an Audit and Risk Management Committee to provide independent assurance to the Public Trustee by overseeing and monitoring the risk and control frameworks, internal audit and external accountability requirements. The Committee is responsible for approving a rolling three-year Internal Audit Plan that is delivered by the Public Trustee’s (outsourced) internal auditors and is developed with regard to the Public Trustee’s operational and enterprise risk registers.

The Public Trustee Business Continuity Planning (BCP) framework informed the basis of the Public Trustee’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

In September 2020 the internal auditors conducted an assessment of the Public Trustee’s BCP Framework against the International Standard ISO 22301:2019 Security and resilience - Business Continuity Management Systems and reviewed the Public Trustee’s response to the business disruption caused by COVID-19.

The auditors found that the Public Trustee’s response compared very favourably to other government and private sector organisations.

As part of the review the auditors also assessed the Public Trustee’s COVID-19 response activities against the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption – Public Administration in a Pandemic Report and reported alignment with the Commissioner’s expectations.

Fraud detected in the agency

No new instances of actual, suspected or alleged instances of fraud involving corporate resources were identified.

Strategies implemented to control and prevent fraud

The Public Trustee has in place a number of management systems, policies, controls, training and procedures directed at preventing, detecting and minimising the risk of fraud.

The Public Trustee assesses the risk of fraud as part of its Risk Assessment Process, with identified risks reviewed at least annually. Fraud risk and control assessments are also conducted as part of the Public Trustee Internal Audit Plan.

All Public Trustee staff attended mandatory Fraud and Corruption Awareness Training in November and December 2020.

Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept

Public interest disclosure

There were no occasions on which public interest information has been disclosed to a responsible officer of the agency under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018.

Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept