The Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Service sought the Committee’s endorsement to the proposed Anti-Fraud & Corruption Strategy prior to presentation to Cabinet for approval.

Following, CIFAS publication of the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Strategy 2020, which outlined that there were now five pillars of activity, the Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Service reviewed the Anti-Fraud & Corruption Strategy and found it to be out of date. The Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Services advised that he took inspiration from other Local Authorities strategies and combined aspects of them to create the new Strategy for Gravesham. The new Strategy attached at Appendix Two had been designed to incorporate the five pillars of activity outlined in the new best practice as well as reflecting the Council’s approach to combatting fraud and corruption.

The Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Services advised that the Strategy would be renamed the Counter Fraud & Corruption Strategy at the upcoming Cabinet meeting.

The Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Services fielded questions from the Committee and explained that:

·         The success of the Strategy was measured by the information that was submitted to the Committee through the audit & counter fraud update reports; the reports revealed the actions undertaken by the service to combat fraud and gave updates from the National Fraud Initiative

·         For a member to report a case of suspected fraud anonymously they could do so through online forms via the Council website; the forms asked for as much information as possible and did not require the person to give their personal details. If a member of the public emailed the team but wanted to remain anonymous, then the team would see their email address, but their personal information would go no further; there were cases where the public had created alternative email addresses to report fraud. In addition, there was also a fraud hotline which could be used anonymously

·         As each case received was assessed based on the level of information provided, if the team had the personal details of the person making the allegation then an officer may contact them in order in order to gain as much information as possible. The more basic the information received the more difficult it was to progress the case and the team only directed their resources to where it was felt there was the highest chance of success

Following a request from a Member, the Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Services agreed to review the wording before the report was submitted to Cabinet and add in the points he had raised about the public being able to contact the team anonymously.

The Chair thanked the Head of Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Services for the report which he found to be very informative and implored Members to contact the Fraud Team if they needed to raise any issues; contact details were listed on page 200 of the report.

Resolved that Members endorsed the Counter Fraud & Corruption Strategy document for presentation to Cabinet for approval.