Decision - SHARED ANTI-FRAUD SERVICES (SAFS) ANTI-FRAUD REPORT 2019/20 AND PROGRESS WITH DELIVERY OF 2020/21 ANTI-FRAUD PLAN

Decision details

SHARED ANTI-FRAUD SERVICES (SAFS) ANTI-FRAUD REPORT 2019/20 AND PROGRESS WITH DELIVERY OF 2020/21 ANTI-FRAUD PLAN

Decision Maker: Audit Committee

Decision status: For Determination

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

The Head of the Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) presented a report on the Anti-Fraud Plan 2019/20 and progress with delivery of the 2020/21 Anti-Fraud Plan.

 

In response to Member’s questions, the Head of SAFS stated:

 

·            The National Fraud Initiative required, every two years, the upload of local authority fraud data in October to the Cabinet Office.  The Cabinet Office provided a return to Councils the following February advising where fraud had been identified through data matching.  There was often a delay in addressing the information provided by the NFI, with some service areas responding quicker than others.  Officers were working to speed up this process in future years;

·            He would contact SBC’s Communications and IT Teams with a view to improving and simplifying the process for members of the public to report fraud, both through the Council’s website and via the telephone;

·            In respect of the achievement of 48% of fraud cases investigated and closed in 2019/20 against a target of 60%, he felt that this target was sufficiently challenging and allowed SAFS to concentrate its effort on delivering a significant level of savings for SBC; and

·            The one grant application referred to in Paragraph 2.15 of the report that was the subject of suspected fraud was still under investigation.   

 

It was RESOLVED:

 

1.          That the Council’s work to combat fraud in 2019/20 be noted.

 

2.          That the performance of the Shared Anti-Fraud Service in meeting its Key Performance Indicators in 2019/20 be noted.

Publication date: 10/09/2020

Date of decision: 10/09/2020

Decided at meeting: 10/09/2020 - Audit Committee

Accompanying Documents: