Letter of Transmittal

Australian Government
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Secretary

Telephone: 02 6261 2472
Facsimile: 02 6273 2081

19 September 2014

The Hon. Ms Julie Bishop MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs

The Hon. Mr Andrew Robb AO MP
Minister for Trade and Investment

Dear Ministers

It is my pleasure to present to you the Annual Report of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the financial year 2013-14

Subsection 63 (1) of the Public Service Act 1999 provides that, after the end of the financial year, the Secretary must give a report to ministers on the department's activities for presentation to the Parliament. The report has been prepared in accordance with the Requirements for Annual Reports as approved by the Joint Committee of the Public Accounts and Audit on 29 May 2014.

I certify that I am satisfied that for 2013-14, the department:

• had in place fraud risk assessments and a fraud control plan;
• had in place fraud prevention, detection, investigation, reporting and data collection procedures and processes;
• took all reasonable measures to minimise the incidence of fraud and to investigate and recover the proceeds of fraud; and
• complied with the Commonwealth Fraud Control Guidelines.

In presenting the Annual Report, I thank my colleagues in the department for their dedication in advancing the interest of Australia and Australians internationally and the professionalism with which they have achieved a newly integrated departmental structure over the past year.

Yours sincerely

Peter N Varghese AO

R G Casey Building, Barton ACT 0221

www.dfat.gov.au