29 September 2006
Public bodies should 'stop talking tough and start achieving concrete results' in combating fraud and corruption, a leading watchdog warned this week.
Speaking to Public Finance, Jim Gee, managing director of the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, said it was imperative that the public sector co-ordinated an approach to reducing and preventing escalating fraud. He claimed that past attempts to tackle the issue had been 'too fragmented, reactive and ineffective'.
The government estimates that the public and private sectors lost a combined £16bn to fraud and corrupt practices last year. Government departments themselves have been hit hard: last year's tax credits fraud at the Revenue and Customs department was just one of many co-ordinated attempts to defraud the Exchequer.
Gee said that the level of fraud and corruption in some public organisations had been 'severe enough to disrupt service delivery and… corrode staff morale'.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred this week warned of the 'damaging financial, reputational and operational consequences that can flow from fraud'.
But despite a number of initiatives to tackle problems in areas such as welfare, local government, health, housing and taxation, Gee told PF: 'There is wide variation in the success at tackling fraud and corruption enjoyed by organisations within any specific sector.
'We all have to become more proactive in preventing the misuse of cash and resources that could and should be used to fund and deliver services.'
Gee this week helped to launch guidance to aid public and private sector organisations develop effective strategies to tackle the problem – the first professional framework of its kind.
Designed by CIPFA's Better Governance Forum in collaboration with the CFSMS and the Audit Commission, Actions to counter fraud and corruption aims to help the UK's 9,000 professionally trained anti-fraud specialists identify risks, create and maintain strong systems and take effective action to prevent problems.
CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer said it was crucial that the ultimate aim should be prevention. He said: 'Taking actions to proactively stop fraud occurring in the first place is a far better remedy than merely managing the risk.'
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