Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SHARED ANTI-FRAUD SERVICE (SAFS)

A report providing details of the work undertaken by the Council and the Shared Anti-Fraud Service to protect the Council against the threat of fraud and the delivery of the Council’s Anti-Fraud Action Plan for 2023-24.

RESOLVED:That the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee noted:

(1)   The activity undertaken by the Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) to deliver the 2023-24 Anti-Fraud Plan.

(2)   All anti-fraud activity undertaken by Council Officers and SAFS to protect the Council and the public fund it administers.

Audio recording – 5 minutes 9 seconds

The Senior Fraud Investigator presented the report entitled ‘SAFS Annual Report 2023-24’ and highlighted that:

·       The Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) had adopted the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Strategy (FFCL) and had adopted the 5 pillars; protect, govern, acknowledge, prevent and pursue.

·       The SAFS team were fully accredited and fully staffed.

·       In quarter 1 and 2, SAFS informed the Committee that due to a new software package they were unable to confirm the exact number of days spent working on behalf of North Herts Council.

·       For the financial year 2023-24 SAFS were able to confirm that 239 days had been recorded on behalf of North Herts against the required 285 days. This discrepancy related to the previously reported software error and assurances were given, based on data, that the full 285 days had been delivered.

·       The SAFS service was provided 365 days a year, as opposed to an audit model of purchased days.

·       Six training sessions were delivered in 2023-24 including Identity Document fraud, and E-learning was provided on money laundering, anti-fraud and anti-bribery.

·       Executive reports were required after any large, new emerging threat or unusual cases of fraud to strengthen controls. Recent reports had been produced on agency staff recruitment and grant application risks.

·       Three generic reports were produced these were on; fraud risks within payroll, multiple employment and the issuing of mayoral certificates.

·       A fraud risk assessment was produced on undisclosed multiple working and concentrated on agency and short term staff.

·       Risk assessments had commenced on procurement recruitment and internal fraud.

·       Bi-monthly fraud alerts were provided to North Herts Council as well as urgent reports to aid in fraud prevention with an example on page 26 of the report.

·       The categories of reported fraud and who reported the cases was detailed in pages 27 and 28 of the report. There was an even split between staff and public reporting cases.

·       There had been 14 cases closed, and 11 of these resulted in £43K of recoverable savings.

·       Overall, throughout the year there had been a reduction in reported cases.

·       Investigations were ongoing in 37 cases with an estimated value of £243K.

·       There had been a review of the Compliance Model and this had since been adopted, resulting in speedier resolutions and investigations. £10K of fraud had already been prevented using this method.

·       The cost of housing fraud was estimated at £42K, £36K of this related to the provision of temporary accommodation. SAFS worked with housing providers where allocation rights were given to North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) housing waiting list and provided financial savings to the Council.

·       There had been a data matching exercise under the National Fraud Initiative, which consisted of 546 matches, 17 errors were discovered for these matches with a value of £69K.

·       Using the Hertfordshire FraudHub data matching system, a further 114 match errors were discovered with a value of £17K.

·       From investigations of the Council Tax Framework, it was discovered that 616 properties were no longer single occupancies with a potential saving of £246K due to Council Tax rebilling and that 154 previously empty properties were now occupied with a potential saving of £318K through the New Homes Bonus Scheme.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Independent Member John Cannon

·       Councillor Dominic Griffiths

·       Councillor Ruth Brown

·       Councillor Paul Ward

In response to questions, the Senior Fraud Investigator advised that:

·       The identified £766K was a combination of losses and savings, part of the amount would be recoverable.

·       Discussions would commence with SAFS Management regarding a breakdown of the losses and saving, with the potential to report this at later Committee meetings.

·       Fraud investigations can take months rather than days with some ongoing for years, data was therefore reviewed on referrals rather than case closures.

·       The annual fees were an investment in future fraud savings and losses and included fraud alerts to aid the culture of fraud prevention.

·       When possible, losses were recovered by NHDC, and these included rebilling households who had incorrectly claimed the single person Council Tax discount.

·       The frauds identified in 2023-24 may also have related to previous financial years, frauds maybe ongoing or applied over a specific period of time.

In response to a question, the Head of Assurance advised that the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) worked closely with SAFS and this had seen controls tightened, most recently with the Executive Report on agency staffing.

Councillor Ruth Brown proposed and Councillor Dominic Griffiths seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:That the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee noted:

(1)   The activity undertaken by the Shared Anti-Fraud Service (SAFS) to deliver the 2023-24 Anti-Fraud Plan.

(2)   All anti-fraud activity undertaken by Council Officers and SAFS to protect the Council and the public fund it administers.