Public Trustee

In reply to Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (2 February 2021).

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government): I have been advised:

The Public Trustee has advised that, given the volumes involved (around 400,000 transactions and 120,000 payments per annum), a risk-based approach has been adopted.

This helps achieve a balance between validating the receipt of goods and services and intruding on customer's lives by requesting validation of each transaction.

To ensure that payments are made appropriately, the following controls are in place:

1. Third-party payment controls

Payments must be authorised by a Public Trustee delegate;

Requests can only be made by identified liaisons or supports of the customer;

A quotation is required and if the goods or service is valued at over $1,100 three independent quotes are needed;

If a third party asks to make the purchase on behalf of the customer, reimbursement is only made on provision of a receipt;

Cash funds made for purchases will only be made to a customer's personal bank account

Customers and/or the support people are also provided with financial statements on a regular basis to provide the opportunity to check transactions.

2. Oversight of individual customers

Customers are managed by an individual officer and all purchase requests are recorded. Individual budgets are recorded for each customer and purchase requests must be made in line with the customer's budget.

Each customer file is also reviewed by an independent officer annually. Regular purchase requests below the $2,500 limit may form a pattern that would be identified by the case officer or checking officer for investigation.

Various reports, which list customers by transaction value and/or volume, are utilised by the Public Trustee and reviewed by team leaders and/or managers to detect and review multiple transactions. Manual sampling and checking of source documentation and verification of receipt of goods and services has also been undertaken in the Personal Estates area.

3. High-risk file review

In September 2017 the ICAC recommended that 'Public Trustee conducts random checks or an audit of key controls and high risk areas'.

In response, the Public Trustee engaged Deloitte to develop a system and report to identify high risk customer scenarios, which also includes reviewing multiple payment transactions. A risk-based approach was adopted in July 2019 across the personal estates and trust areas to check customers identified in this report on a monthly basis.