14 November 2008
By Paul Dicken
Losses from internal fraud and theft in Whitehall increased from £3.9m to over £4m in the past financial year despite a fall in the number of reported cases, a Treasury report has said.
The Fraud Report 2007/08: an analysis of reported fraud in government departments, said the number of reported cases had decreased from 1,067 in 2006/07 to 761, with the main falls occurring in theft of assets and personnel management related fraud.
Payment fraud – where false payments are created or payments diverted – amounted to over £2.9m. There was a slight increase in the value of Government Procurement Card and credit card fraud, mainly attributed to misuse of a card by a senior manager, which cost almost £78,000 over four years.
The report, based on data collected from 47 public bodies by the assurance, control and risk team at the Treasury, said the largest payment fraud amounted to £1m. This involved a staff member working with external parties to misallocate payments, while an officer who processed payment claims used information about claimants to create false payments totalling £400,000.
As of October, Whitehall departments were able to take part in the National Fraud Initiative, the pan-public sector programme managed by the Audit Commission. New data-matching powers, extending to central government and the private sector, will allow potential fraud and overpayments to be identified across a wider range of services that include housing benefit claims, payrolls and social housing records.
A National Fraud Strategic Authority – an executive agency of the Attorney General's Office – was also launched in October to provide a clearer picture of the extent of fraud in the UK and the reporting and policing of it.
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