Audit Commission reveals highest ever levels of council fraud detection
Nearly £200M of fraud has been detected by English councils in 2013/14 – the highest amount for a generation and ten times the 1990 figure, the Audit Commission has revealed.
In its latest – and last – report on fraud in local government ‘Protecting the Public Purse 2014: Fighting Fraud Against Local Government’, it captures a zeitgeistian snapshot of fraud in English local authorities, something it has been tracking since its first report in 1990.
Jeremy Newman, chairman of the Audit Commission, said: ‘Protecting the Public Purse’ has helped local government foster greater transparency and accountability around its response to fraud. In the early days, it created a common language with which to report fraud.
“By allowing councils to make peer comparisons, the commission’s work has helped councils to benchmark their individual performance against local and national figures. I believe it also encouraged the sector to develop a real passion for fighting fraud – a passion that has ensured that £188m of fraud was detected by English councils in 2013/14: the highest total value we have recorded and a 6% increase on the result we reported for 2012/13”.
The volume of detected cases of housing benefit and council tax benefit fraud fell by 1% to nearly 47,000, but rose in monetary terms by 7% to £129m.
More worryingly, there was a 14% fall in the number of cases of fraud detected in 2012/13 and a further 3% drop in the last year to 104,000.
Newman urged the government to compel local authorities to keep reporting on fraud, to “help preserve the high levels of transparency and accountability”. He highlighted the results from those councils maintaining exposure.
Source: Accountancyage- Audit Commission reveals highest ever levels of council fraud detection
