Robbing the " Public Purse " !

A police raid this week arrested eighteen people and uncovered a sophisticated child care fraud that was drawing millions of dollars of government tax money into the pockets of its organizers.  It seems that the ramifications go ever deeper and it seems that ordinary families simply sold their names and identities to enable the syndicate to claim for childcare subsidies under childcare schemes.

One source close to the investigation claimed that this groups organization can only be described as parallel with sophisticated organised crime.  Search warrants were executed on homes in Greenacre, Bass Hill, Georges Hall, Chester Hill and the Illawarra.  In one instance a property masqueraded as a daycare centre despite being without electricity for 22 days in February and never having any children present.   It is feared that this is merely the tip of the iceberg and similar rorting of the public purse is widespread.

The problem is that whenever the government responds to the needs of society with the provision of welfare in the form of an entitlement there are some who see that as an opportunity for plunder.  In fact many people see that as a " victimless " crime because taking money from the government is just the same as making false claims for bogus income tax deductions.  In many circles cheating the government for a form of gain seems to be a legitimate national pastime.

We recently learned that the practice of creating organized car crashes with the aim of gaining compensation for imaginary injuries was adding seventy dollars to the premium we pay for all third party greenslip car insurance in New South Wales.  In addition, repair of damage to the crashed vehicles was part of an organized crime ring involving unscrupulous repair shops in the motor trade industry.  A low speed crash with close orchestration can be a long term payout for the organizers.

 It is impossible to estimate what degree of public money is lost to fraud across the entire spectrum of government entitlements but there is speculation that it would be massive.  Of course, without that loss a lot of unfunded other benefits would be possible and with an election just days away we are inundated with promises of greater benefits to attract our votes.

The police are probably not the ideal organization to detect entitlement fraud. A specific institutional   branch of government tasked with investigating the dispersal of public money could be more productive in eliminating welfare fraud.   It will be interesting to learn as this childcare case proceeds to court action just how long it has remained undiscovered and what amount of money has been lost.

What is even more interesting is the undoubted rorts that persist undetected and await a public examination.