THE Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, asked his department secretary, Conall O'Connell, for a ''full report'' yesterday into allegations concerning internal fraud and irregular tendering.

The allegations surfaced in internal audit files published yesterday in the Herald.

"Since being sworn in as minister in September 2010 I have made it clear to the department that I expect fraud and control measures to be treated with the utmost seriousness,'' he said. "Any claims about the misuse of taxpayers' funds are taken seriously by this government and investigated fully.''

In the past three years, there have been almost 400 breaches of the Financial Management Act or its regulations by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the files show, as well as ''high levels of non-compliance'' in major contract procurement. They also revealed the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service was inconsistently applying sanctions to importers. One file noted ''inconsistent views of AQIS staff as to the extent to which sanctions could be successfully established and approved''.

Dr O'Connell said there had been no findings of fraud against a departmental officer in 2008 or since. The audits were ''part of our normal internal control processes to improve our practices'', he said.

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