I am conducting research and analysis into Public Sector Counter Fraud as part of my PhD and the formation of a new not-for-profit start-up.I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.1) Do you have a fraud investigation department/team?2) If you don't have a fraud team, who investigates reported case of fraud?
3) How many fraud investigators are there in your team?
4) Can you please list the top 4 most common types of fraud you investigate?
5) Do you investigate any Covid related fraud cases – e.g. business grant, business support, business rates relief or business load fraud cases?
6) Do you release or publish any information about the number of cases you investigate per annum, the value of fraud and their outcomes?
7) How many fraud cases were investigated in 2020 and in 2021?
8) Do you use an electronic case management system to record and manage your fraud cases? If so, which case management system do you use?
9) Do you use data matching to proactively identify potential fraud cases? Which product or service do you use?
10) Do you investigate fraud on behalf of other organisations? Can you please state who?
Response
1) No
2) Managers and business support staff
3) N/A
4) Phishing, duplicate supplier invoices, Council Tax Single Person discount (SPD), grants
5) Yes
6) Yes as per Counter Fraud Strategy, activity and outcomes in Counter Fraud Annual Report presented to Management and Audit Committee.
7) The number of fraud cases are not specifically recorded due to the potential volume, in particular those related to NFI activity that produces >5000 data matches that could be investigated, though these are captured in the NFI portal managed by the Cabinet Office; however SBC counter fraud activity and outcomes, including NFI, are outlined in the Counter Fraud Annual Report presented to Management and Audit Committee.
8) No
9) Yes, the Internal Audit team use data analytics routinely as part of their assurance work on transactions from a variety of systems; the Council participates in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) with other public sector organisations which uses data matching to detect fraud.
10) No
