Issue - meetings

Report of Assistant Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer)  

Purpose of report

This report presents the counter fraud annual report for 2025/26.

Recommendations

The Accounts, Audit and Risk Committee resolves to:

1.1           Note the annual report.

Resolved

(1)      That the Counter Fraud Annual Report 2024/2025 be noted.

The Assistant Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) submitted the Counter Fraud Annual Report for 2024/25.

In introducing the report, Sarah Butler, Corporate Fraud Manager at Veritau advised the Committee that the report updated the Committee on the Fraud Team’s work in 2024/25. Veritau had established a good working relationship with various departments within the Council and that twelve fraud investigations had taken place.

In response to a question regarding how the figure of 66% of successful outcomes of fraud investigations compared to previous years and other Councils, the Corporate Fraud Manager explained that the industry standard was around 50% but it was difficult to provide comparative data due to the nature of the work undertaken. Comparisons with previous years were not available as this was the first year Veritau had been engaged as the Council’s counter-fraud provider.

Resolved

(1)      That the Counter Fraud Annual Report 2024/2025 be noted.