Billions lost to fraud and error during UK's pandemic spending spree
- Reference: 1707470826
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/09/nao_pandemic_fraud_data/
- Source link:
This is according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), which found levels of fraud in UK public spending grew sharply during the pandemic. The fraud reported in accounts the watchdog audits rose from £5.5 billion in the two years before the pandemic to £21.0 billion in the two years after.
Estimates from the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), the NAO pointed out, suggest fraud in UK public spending could have reached £58.8 billion during the 2020-2021 financial year, covering the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
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The NAO said lack of access to data was part of the reason authorities struggled to keep up with the explosion in fraud.
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"Officials told us that they struggled to access the data that they needed that existed elsewhere in government to support emergency responses. The recent pandemic demonstrated that agreeing data sharing under the Digital Economy Act 2017 can be cumbersome and take too much time to be practical in an emergency," the report published this week said.
"Improving data and interoperability is a systemic challenge for government. Public bodies have different approaches to data governance and data is dispersed across central and local government bodies. Different software and hardware may be used, and the same information recorded in different ways," [4]the report [PDF] added.
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The NAO recommends that the Cabinet Office's Central Digital and Data Office work with central government departments and the PSFA to figure out what existing data sets might be needed to make payments and fight fraud in the next emergency, and figure out whether they can be easily shared.
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An NAO report from last year found that the government was only at an early stage of using intelligence, data-matching, and data analytics to prevent fraud and corruption.
"Officials working in counter-fraud told us that the processes in place for sharing data, both between and within departmental groups, are often slow and burdensome, often resulting in incomplete or time-lagged data being shared," [10]the NAO said [PDF].
An earlier publication from 2022 pointed out that legacy systems and aging data "create complex practical issues for data-sharing."
A report by the Modernisation and Reform group published in the [11]summer of 2021 indicated £2.3 billion of the £4.7 billion government spent on technology in 2019 was dedicated to "keeping the lights on" activity on "outdated legacy systems."
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In the US, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the total amount of fraud in the Unemployment Insurance program alone during the COVID-19 pandemic was probably $100 billion to $135 billion, or between 11 and 15 of the total benefits paid out during the period. ®
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[4] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/lessons-learned-tackling-fraud-and-protecting-propriety-in-government-spending-during-an-emergency.pdf
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[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/06/home_office_assylum_system_replacement_deadline_missed/
[10] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tackling-fraud-and-corruption-against-government.pdf
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[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Oops, we stole it
What's worse is that Toby jug Sunak actively declined to go after the fraud, instead just decided to wipe it clear.
Re: Oops, we stole it
...and NCA and SFO looked the other way... while getting paid for not doing that...
Re: Oops, we stole it
And to the downvoters: Hanlon's razor breaks when incompetence serves malice.
Who benefited from this? Dodgy company owners, shareholders, directors. Principally tory voters. Not workers. (They did benefit from correctly-administered payments not included in this figure.)
The problem wasn't just that the system was broken, it was that the operators of the system knew it was broken and didn't care. They told their mates that the system was broken and that they could fraudulently claim free money from the magic money tree and they would get away with it. And they largely did.
Re: Oops, we stole it
"They did benefit from correctly-administered payments not included in this figure"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/13/record-levels-benefit-fraud-universal-credit-first-year-pandemic-in-britain
Someone managed to claim nearly £1500 in my name over the summer of 2020. When I finally got through to someone who knew what was going on they admitted that no-one had spoken to the person who made the claim. It was all done on-line. There wasn't even a check to see if they were still paying NI and income tax. I eventually got a letter saying 'oops, sorry, our bad, you don't need to pay us back'.
Some people need to go to prison for the amount of fraud that was allowed to happen.
Re: Oops, we stole it
And what would have been your reaction (and that of the media) at the time, if the government had said: "Faced with a pandemic, we're procuring lots of PPE and other medical equipment, but we must go through all the necessary steps to prevent fraud, rigorous testing to ensure quality standards are met, getting three competitive tenders on each bid, validating DEI and anti-slavery policies of suppliers, etc, which will delay things by a few months."? Note that Starmer's Labour were supportive of all these purchases, except for demands for "harder and faster".
Re: Oops, we stole it
It wasn't just PPE and other urgent covid related things though, it was all kinds of stuff going through the VIP lane. Multimillion pound IT contracts. Services for prison and probation. Schools contracts.
To hell with all of this anti-corruption malarkey. That's why we left the EU, right?
I've no love for Starmer and his neo-Blairites either, by the way. He just parrots anything the tories say
Does it actually count as fraud if it ends up in the offshore bank accounts of your friends, family and donors?
It's only fraud if you don't give a cut to authorities.
And if you ARE the authorities? Is it fraud then?
NAO can do
Don't worry! We are going to pay everything back in higher taxes while ensuring mental health of fraudsters is not affected by pesky investigations.
Imagine how much influence those billions can buy now. It's probably enough to send any three letter agency to wild goose chases until the end of time.
One of the best memes ...
Family fortunes with Michelle Mone.
Les Dennis: Name one thing you should get in a pandemic ?
MM: Rich.
Oops, we stole it
Almost one HS2 worth of dosh has gone missing under the tory regime, and now we'll leave it to Labour to give you the next austerity budget!