The Senior Fraud Investigator presented the Annual Corporate Fraud Report 2020-21 which summarised the actions undertaken in respect of counter fraud and provides an update on the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) Exercise

He advised that it was a core function of the Governance and Audit Committee to consider the effectiveness of the Council’s Risk Management arrangements, the control environment and associated anti-fraud and corruption arrangements.

The Senior Fraud Investigator outlined the key areas of the counter fraud work undertaken within the Authority during 2020-21, and this was summarised in Appendix A. He outlined the most recent data matching exercise which was based on data extracted in September 2018. A total of 431 frauds or errors were identified equating to £30,276.73 of recoverable funds. The exercise also resulted in the cancellation of 396 blue badges, where the holder was deceased, generating an estimated cabinet office saving of £227,700. More detailed results were included at Annex 2 of Appendix A. The next biennial data matching exercise commenced in 2020 with data extracted in October 2020 and the new matches returned in January 2021. Work on these matches was currently ongoing.

The Senior Fraud Investigator outlined the joint working arrangements as well as the national studies that took place. Details were at sections 5 and 6 of Appendix A.

The Lay Member asked in respect of the action plan, what were the time frames expected for completions of the actions. The Senior Fraud Investigator explained that many of the actions appear as and when needed, for example the training and awareness action, but the majority of actions should be completed within the three years.

The Lay Member asked if the risks surrounding cyber-fraud were reflected in the action plan and the current situation on this.

The Senior Fraud Investigator mentioned that as of yesterday following conversations with South Wales Police, further training had been discussed on Cyber fraud from the Tarian group among all the senior fraud investigators across local authorities. He added that his intention was to have a training session provided to staff but also Members.

A Member asked what type of fraud was committed in respect of blue badges, and what could be done to have a better system so that these frauds could be prevented.

The Senior Fraud Investigator explained that the main types of fraud were misuse of the badge, i.e. people using someone else’s blue badge. The issues faced were that it required a presence in these areas to counteract this. He stated that there were intentions for a fraud drive similar to previous years to tackle the misuse of blue badges but with the pandemic and the restrictions in place this proved difficult.

He added that civil enforcement officers had reported badge misuse but they were not sufficiently trained to deal with some of these misuses, and the training required had been difficult to arrange with the restrictions in place due to the pandemic. His main focus was to provide further training and neighbouring authorities had offered to share the costs of this. He believed that further presence from suitably trained enforcement offices would deter this type of fraud.  

A Member asked if there was a breakdown of the different areas of fraud that were not able to be investigated. The Senior Fraud Investigator mentioned that there were a number of cases that were not able to be investigated and these were due to a lack of detail. This was a similar situation for blue badge fraud reports whereby the report lacked enough detail to investigate as there was no blue badge number provided.

RESOLVED:                               That the Committee noted the Annual Corporate Fraud Report 2020- 21, the measures in place, the work being undertaken to prevent and detect fraud and error and the update on the National Fraud Initiative (NFI).