Fighting fraud in the public sector

Fraud is definitely not the exclusive problem of the private sector. In this month’s Public Finance magazine, an extensive feature looks at the issues discussed at a seminar hosted by Public Finance and Deloitte. It was attended by 30 key figures from the public finance sector including chief information officers, finance directors and fraud investigation officers . £21.2 billion was lost in 2010 through fraud in the public sector, accounting for ‘55% of all fraud loss in the U.K.’ Such fraud included tax fraud, procurement processes and expenses. Dame Sue Street, from Deloitte, and previously a government permanent secretary, said that a problem area was the reluctance of finance and other departments to ‘report bad news quickly.’ Organisational culture and knowledge share were seen as two key areas to work on in order to reduce the rising incidence of fraud. For much more detail on this key public finance seminar read the article here http://issuu.com/redactive/docs/pfmar2012?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222