Agenda item

6.1

6.2

6.3

6.4

6.5

6.6

6.7

6.8

The Head of Strategic Finance submitted a report to the Committee.  Stephen Bower, Finance Manager (Internal Audit), informed the Committee of the outcomes of the work undertaken by Internal Audit on fraud and corruption in 2017/18 and the proposed work for 2018/19.

The report also included the full suite of updated policies that cover the various elements of the fraud and corruption framework for the Council.  All of the policies relating to fraud had been updated during the year and were appended for Members to review and endorse.

The suite of policies gave a consistent approach for the identification of fraud risks and their mitigation.  There was also a process to allow managers to investigate potential fraud effectively, in line with other relevant policies and procedures.

The Committee were advised that the Cabinet Office is responsible for the National Fraud Initiative (NFI).  This was a biennial process where data is supplied from other Council’s and third parties such as DWP and banks and building societies, any data matches identified would then be submitted to the Council for investigation.  This process was tracked by Internal Audit and the outcomes were outlined within the report.

CIPFA produced an annual fraud and corruption tracker report which correlated data from Councils and pulled together an overall picture of fraud in local government across the Country.

Councillor Mahroof felt it would be beneficial to known what the figures were for Sheffield in respect of fraudulent tenancies. The Executive Director, Resources advised that a three year trend of known cases of fraudulent tenancies in Sheffield could be supplied.

The Finance Manager (Internal Audit) outlined the suite of policies and advised that once these were approved, an e-learning package would be launched and rolled out on a mandatory basis to all staff within the Council which would help support the implementation of the anti-fraud policies across the Council.

Resolved: That the Committee:-

i)             notes the content of the report;

ii)            endorses the suite of Council Policies to cover the anti-fraud framework of the Council as outlined in appendix B-H of the report; and

iii)           notes the completed checklist for those responsible for governance as outlined in appendix A of the report.