12. New employees at my organisation undergo pre-employment screening that includes criminal history checks.

Public Sector Fraud Awareness Survey - Findings: Fraud prevention.

Observation:

71% of respondents said that their organisation has pre-employment screening.

78% of Chief Executives said that their organisations had pre-employment screening processes that included criminal history checks.

What some respondents have said:

PwC comment:

A less than robust pre-employment screening process can lead to organisations employing someone who may pose a risk to its reputation or financial wellbeing. We recommend credit history and bankruptcy checks for all appointments where a person will have a financial delegation or an authority to spend. Criminal history checks should be considered for all new appointments.

“While we do not undertake formal criminal record checks for every prospective employee we do make provision for doing this if deemed necessary.”

“My answer was yes but only some new employees have their criminal history checked.”

“Fraud awareness training is underway with key managers, and a rationalisation of suppliers is underway which will assist any the reduction in opportunities to defraud or collude with suppliers and specific probity checks are carried on a regular cycle and on key executives or people in certain positions if any resignations of such positions.”

“Depends on the position.”

	Yes		No		Don’t know		Total Count
Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director/Principal	297	78%	70	18%	16	4%	383
Member of the senior executive/leadership team or equivalent	341	69%	104	21%	46	9%	491
Line manager (if not one of the above)	138	63%	41	19%	41	19%	220
Administration/Support Services	160	80%	17	9%	23	12%	200
Operational staff (e.g. Teacher, Analyst, Advisor, Technician, Officer, Engineer, Accountant)	80	58%	19	14%	38	28%	137
Total	1,016	71%	251	18%	164	11%	1,431

	Yes		No		Don’t know		Total
Central Government
Autonomous Crown Entities	29	54%	18	33%	7	13%	54
Central Government - Other	19	42%	19	42%	7	16%	45
Crown Agents or Companies	51	59%	24	28%	12	14%	87
Crown Research Institutes	20	53%	11	29%	7	18%	38
District Health Boards	53	76%	10	14%	7	10%	70
Government Departments	109	74%	21	14%	17	12%	147
Independent Crown Entities	17	46%	12	32%	8	22%	37
Māori Trust Boards	9	82%	2	18%	0	0%	11
Rural Education Activities Programmes	11	100%	0	0%	0	0%	11
State-Owned Enterprises	31	66%	9	19%	7	15%	47
Tertiary Education Institutions	45	49%	22	24%	24	26%	91
Sub-Total	394	62%	148	23%	96	15%	638

	Yes		No		Don’t know		Total
Local Government
Airports	12	63%	1	5%	6	32%	19
Council Controlled Organisations or Council Controlled Trading Organisations	33	44%	27	36%	15	20%	75
Energy Companies	14	50%	9	32%	5	18%	28
Fish and Game Councils	7	88%	1	13%	0	0%	8
Licensing and Community Trusts	4	44%	3	33%	2	22%	9
Local Authorities	83	49%	51	30%	35	21%	169
Local Government - Other	5	45%	5	45%	1	9%	11
Port Companies	2	67%	1	33%	0	0%	3
Sub-Total	160	50%	98	30%	64	20%	322

Schools	462	98%	5	1%	4	1%	471
Total	1,016	71%	251	18%	164	11%	1,431

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