Audit Scotland
A national detection exercise by Audit Scotland and other public bodies
has identified fraud and error overpayments, savings and other outcomes
worth more than £20 million.
An Audit Scotland report, The National Fraud Initiative in Scotland:
making an impact, sets out the results of the 2008/09 exercise, which
involved 74 bodies, including councils, police forces, fire and rescue services,
health boards, the Scottish Public Pension Agency and the Student Award
Agency for Scotland.
Data on deceased persons, public sector employees and pensioners,
benefit applicants, council tax records, failed asylum-seekers, disabled
parking permits, expired visas and students was compared to look for
potential inconsistencies that might suggest fraud or error. These ‘matches’
were then followed up to identify fraud and error, stop overpayments and,
where possible, recover the sums involved.
Auditor General for Scotland Robert Black
said:
“Most people are honest and behave with
integrity. Some do make genuine mistakes, but there are a small number who
set out to cheat the public sector. Our successful National Fraud Initiative
should be a deterrent. This is the third time the initiative has been carried out
in Scotland. It has been the most successful anti-fraud exercise yet, with the
results worth £21.1 million of public money.“The NFI helps public
bodies save and recover money by identifying cases where payments such as
pensions and housing benefits are being wrongly paid to people, either
through human error or incorrect information. It also helps them detect
deliberate fraud.”
The report says that while the NFI has been successful, much of the
information used in this exercise was collected before the recession really
took hold. An economic downturn is commonly linked to a heightened risk of
fraud, and public bodies need to remain vigilant.
Audit Scotland’s Director of Audit Strategy, Russell Frith,
said:
“Audit Scotland
has done a lot in recent years to measure the impact of its work. The title="National Fraud Initiative">NFI is a
prime example of how the audit process can make a measurable difference
for public bodies and the citizens they serve.”
Audit Scotland last reported on the NFI in 2008. The cumulative outcome
from these exercises in Scotland is now around £58 million and there have
been at least 80 successful prosecutions since that last report.
The NFI in Scotland is
similar to exercises undertaken elsewhere in the UK. Data is processed by the
Audit Commission in England using a secure web-based system.
Audit Scotland will begin the next NFI exercise in October. This is expected to
be carried out under new powers currently before the Scottish Parliament.
These will provide for more collaboration with other UK agencies to detect
‘cross border’ fraud, extend the range of public sector bodies involved, and
allow data matching to be used to detect other crime as well as fraud.