57 Counter Fraud Strategy and Plan for 2019/20 PDF 399 KB
4.20pm
Report by the Director of Finance
This report presents the Counter Fraud Strategy and Plan for 2019/20 and a review of activity from 2018/19.
The committee is RECOMMENDED to:
a) note the summary of activity from 2018/19; and
b) comment and note the Counter Fraud Strategy and Plan for 2019/20.
Decision:
Recommendations agreed.
Minutes:
Sarah Cox introduced the report and responded to Members questions as follows:
· The multi-disciplinary approach referred to in paragraph 6 means having all relevant people in the discussion, for example legal, children’s services.
· The Chief Internal Auditor met with the Head of Fraud at West Oxfordshire District Council to further improve linkages there. This is particularly important in improving prevention of fraud.
· The Council has not pulled out of its arrangements with the City Council on Single-person Discounts. There have been communications issues there but the work is continuing in part.
· With Direct Payments, where there used to be one or two cases reported annually, there are now 10 to 20 cases of financial abuse by or against a service-user. One case potentially in excess of £40,000 was referred to the police but no action has been taken yet. OCC’s focus is on prevention.
· The whistleblower pages were reviewed to ensure that staff were clear on the names and numbers they could contact.
RESOLVED: to
a) note the summary of activity from 2018/19; and
b) comment and note the Counter Fraud Strategy and Plan for 2019/20.