Since
its commencement in 1996, National Fraud Initiative (NFI) exercises have
identified over £35 million of fraud and overpayments in Wales. Reported
overpayments include sums of money that have already been paid out and forward
projections, where it is reasonable to assume that fraud, overpayments and
error would have continued undetected without NFI data matching.
The
most recent exercise covers the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2018. The
latest NFI exercise has been one of the most successful to date – uncovering
£5.4 million of fraud and overpayments across public services in Wales,
compared with £4.4 million in 1996.
The
initiative, which is carried our every two years, matches data across
organisations and systems to help public bodies identify potentially fraudulent
or erroneous claims and transactions. The Auditor General collaborates on the
NFI with the Cabinet Office, Audit Scotland and the Northern Ireland Audit
Office to match data across 13,000 organisations in England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland.
While
all unitary local authorities, police, fire and NHS bodies in Wales are
mandated to participate in the NFI, the Auditor General encourages all publicly
funded bodies in Wales to participate on a voluntary basis and free of charge.
The
Public Accounts Committee
considered the Report in November 2018 and agreed to work with the Auditor
General for Wales on counter fraud in the public sector.
The
Committee held an informative and inclusive event on 1 July for stakeholders.
This was delivered by public sector colleagues together with Wales Audit Office
representatives to exchange support, good practice and knowledge about counter
fraud in the public sector. The event considered:
Presentations
from the event are available to view below:
Business type: Other
First published: 16/08/2016
Decision due: Meeting Date by Public Accounts Committee