A report into fraud in the public sector reveals today that losses of at least £22bn are higher than previously thought.
The report, by accountancy firm MacIntyre Hudson and the centre for counter fraud studies at the University of Portsmouth, estimate that the government is losing £16bn through uncollected taxes and a further £22bn through fraud and error.
The report maintains that changing the way fraud is managed could result in these losses being cut by a third within three years.
Jim Gee, director of counter fraud services at MacIntyre Hudson, said the UK needs to learn from countries like the US, where public sector organisations have a legal duty to measure accurately the nature and extent of their losses each year and to publish this information, together with their plans for reducing them.
He says that the official estimates of public sector fraud in the UK would imply that this country is 175 times better at protecting public expenditure than other countries.
This is, he says, "a difficult proposition". If the report's figures are correct, says Gee, then the level of fraud in the UK is about the same as in most other countries.
That is higher than the official estimates, but also provides greater potential for savings, with relatively small levels of investment.
Gee argues that the most effective way to cut down on fraud is to change the culture, by introducing measures to tackle fraud.
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
