AustraliaPublic sector2021 – ongoingAustralian Taxation Office
AI risk models for work-related expense claims
An audit questioned governance of the ATO's AI models for expense claims
Problem
The Australian Taxation Office needed to identify potentially non-compliant work-related expense claims for human review.
Approach
The ATO's data science team developed AI models to support human decisions about expense claims. Its substantiation risk model was first deployed in August 2021. A federal audit questioned model design and explainability, and found that the ATO lacked a framework of policies and procedures for AI model development.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The models were already supporting reviews while the ATO developed broader AI governance. Enterprise-wide performance monitoring remained a future commitment.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Finance, risk and legal
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Regulator, audit or court
Sources
Source summaries
iTnews reported the federal auditor-general's scrutiny of the ATO's expense models and AI governance. It described models supporting human teams and the ATO's commitment to enterprise-wide performance monitoring by December 2026.
Full details are in the original sources.
