Aberdeen City Council fraud team finds £450,000 of savings

Aberdeen City Council has saved more than £400,000 through rooting out fraud in one year.

A new report to the council’s audit committee says that preventing fraud in the local authority in the year 2017/18 identified savings of £450,000.

However, it was found the council’s anti-fraud systems were “adequate and proportional”.

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Fraud is a major problem for public bodies with £18.6million identified for 2016/17 in Scotland and £301million across the UK over the same period.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) defines fraud as acts such as deception, bribery, forgery, extortion, embezzlement and corruption.

The report to Thursday’s committee reads: “Investigations carried out by the council’s own Corporate Investigation Team (CIT) have identified savings (actual and notional) of over £450,000 through identification and prevention of fraud in 2017/18.

“The objective of this audit was to provide assurance that the council’s arrangements for the prevention of fraud, bribery and corruption are adequate and proportionate. In general, this was found to be the case.”