Issue - meetings

To receive the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Report 2022/23.

The Audit & Governance Lead Manager presented the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Annual report for 2022/23 together with the revised Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy.

The S151 Officer must ensure good governance measures were in place to prevent fraud and corruption and protect the Council from any loss.  This activity fell across many teams.  The Investigation Team, which was part of Audit and Governance, investigated all elements of fraud and theft and prevented fraud and corruption by the use of policies, training courses and attending at management meetings.

Most frauds were related to revenues and single person council tax discounts and were generally low level in terms of value.

Overall a saving of £291,000 had been saved which could have been lost to fraud.

Internal Audit, Public Protection, Licensing and Trading Standards were some of the team involved in preventing anti-fraud and corruption. 

The revised Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy was required to come before Committee at least once every two years and contained details of how to combat fraud and corruption and was in line with statutory guidance and best practice.

During the debate some Members enquired if the Council was part of inter-agency working, if any commission was received from the frauds that have been prevented and the cost of the investigation team against the recovery of any funds.

The Audit & Governance Lead Manager confirmed that in previous year the fraud function had split, but discussions were ongoing to bring the function back together.  The Teams work well with the Police and provided vital input to police investigations.  In relation to costs of the team versus savings, the team paid for itself.

Upon being put to the vote it was, unanimously:

RECOMMENDED TO FULL COUNCIL that the revised Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy be adopted.