Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) charged four people with a range of offences as part of Operation Lansdowne, which examined allegations of serious corruption involving the Victorian vocational education and training, and transport sectors.

More than 55 charges have been laid against four people in the Victorian vocational education and training sector - one former public sector employee and three individuals associated with an external provider. Their names have not been released.

The alleged offences include conspiracy to defraud, obtaining financial advantage by deception, using and supplying identification information, misconduct in public office and unauthorised modification of data.

The four accused have been summonsed to appear in Warrnambool Magistrates' Court on October 19.

In 2015, The Standard reported South West TAFE, which has multiple campuses at locations including Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland, had asked police to examine a third-party contractor running an engineering course after uncovering irregularities.

The special investigation by Victoria's corruption watchdog later found an alleged multi-million dollar training scam exploited oversight weaknesses at South West Institute of TAFE.

An IBAC report released in 2017 said a training company operated an alleged scam through which it received more than $2 million of government funding under subcontracting arrangements with two TAFEs, for training that allegedly did not take place.

The investigation identified weaknesses in the systems and controls of South West TAFE and Bendigo Kangan Institute of TAFE which allowed the alleged scam to flourish. The key weakness was a failure by both TAFEs to conduct any meaningful oversight of the training which was meant to be delivered on their behalf.

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