Decision Maker: Audit Committee
Decision status: For Determination
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
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: