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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-29 Daily Xml
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Auditor-General's Report

In reply to Mr COWDREY (Colton) (1 November 2022).

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer): I have been advised of the following:

The Fines Enforcement and Debt Recovery Act 2017 (FEDRA) provides the Chief Recovery Officer (CRO) with a range of measures for the recovery of outstanding fines, expiation fees, pecuniary sums and other civil debts owed to the state.

The unit operates an inbound call centre staffed by collections officers who work with clients to assist in managing their debts. Clients receive formal notification, through various means, from the unit of impending enforcement action encouraging clients to contact the unit to address outstanding debts.

Collections officers assist clients in addressing their debts in accordance with arrangements under the FEDRA. Clients may also attend to debts using the units online self-service portal. Clients are encouraged to pay debts in full or enter payment arrangements for the satisfaction of debts.

A small proportion of debts are referred to external debt collection agencies for outbound contact and action under the delegation of the CRO.

Prescribed enforcement actions within the FEDRA that are available to the CRO, refer to a range of measures that can be applied within prescribed timeframes when overdue fines and state debts remain unpaid. Enforcement actions provide points of escalation to encourage clients to address outstanding debts.

Enforcement actions applied by the CRO to clients with outstanding debts during 2021-22 included:

Restrictions on carrying out business with the Registrar of Motor Vehicles *

Driver licence suspension *

Garnishment (deductions from salary or bank account)

Charge on real property owned by the debtor

*Enforcement action is not applicable to overdue state debts.

It is important to note that the small proportion of debts referred to the unit's external debt collection partners have generally had the above enforcement actions applied or attempted by the CRO before external referral to our debt collection agencies. The unit works closely with debt collection partners on all matters referred and generally the debt collection agency is acting as first party referral (on behalf of the unit) in line with the CRO delegations.

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