Agenda item

The Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance submitted a report providing an account of counter fraud related activity undertaken by the Internal Audit Corporate Anti-Fraud Team during the period 1^st April, 2020 to 31^st March.

In 2020/21 the Team had a total budgeted plan of 600 days, however, as part of the Council’s response to the Covid pandemic, two members of the Team had been redeployed to other council departments for a total of 101 days.  Preventative anti-fraud work undertaken totalled 319 days, reactive investigations totalled 236 days and a further 50 days related to time provided by Internal Audit colleagues in respect of business support grant assurance.

The report provided a summary of activity together with the outcome in relation to corporate pro-active counter fraud activity, National Fraud Initiative work and reactive work undertaken during the year.  An appendix to the report provided a summary of the reactive work undertaken.

In the ensuing discussion, the following matters were highlighted:

·         There was a discussion of the work undertaken in relation to the misuse of the Blue Badge scheme and to the reasons for the decision by the courts not to proceed with prosecutions and to the subsequent actions taken

·         Arising out of the above, further information would be provided for Members on the number of blue badges in use.  Information was also provided on the way in which validity checks were made to ensure that such badges were still valid and being used correctly

·         Good progress had been made on the checks undertaken in relation to small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grants but nearly 700 were left to check.  In response to specific questioning the Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance gave a brief overview of how this work was undertaken

RESOLVED:

(i)            That the Annual Fraud report be received and the continued progress made in the development of effective arrangements and measures to minimise the risk of fraud and corruption be noted; and

(ii)              That the embedding of a culture of zero tolerance and high levels of awareness regarding fraud and corruption continue to be supported.