Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting held on 8 November, 2017 (attached)

b)  Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 8^th November 2017 were agreed and signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) which sought approval to the Fraud and Corruption Strategy as set out in Appendix One of the report.

The Fraud and Corruption Strategy (the Strategy) explained the Council’s strategic response to tackling fraud and corruption and set out the Counter Fraud Framework, which comprises the various elements the Council uses to fight and implement the Fraud and Corruption Strategy.

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered the Strategy on 18^th June 2018 and in response to comments raised, noted that the new Strategy required capacity which would be addressed by a restructuring of internal audit.

Local authorities faced a significant fraud challenge with annual losses to local government estimated at £2.1 billion a year. Fraud and corruption was a drain on the public purse and took resources away from the delivery od front line services.

The risk of fraud was acknowledged by central government through publication of “Fighting Fraud Locally” which was a counter fraud and corruption strategy for local government. This emphasised the need for local authorities to “ensure they are active in looking for and identifying fraud and embedding a counter fraud culture at the heart of their organisation”.

In light of this new national counter fraud landscape, the Council’s Fraud and Corruption Strategy had been reviewed and updated to ensure the Council’s arrangements provided a rigorous framework to respond to these challenges.   

In order for the Council to have a clear structure in terms of roles and responsibilities, investigation processes and procedures etc. a Counter Fraud Framework had been developed and formed part of the updated Fraud and Corruption Strategy.

It was intended that the Framework would be used to develop an annual action plan of work to support the continuous improvement of the Council’s counter fraud arrangements to ensure their ongoing effectiveness, including building on the Council’s capacity and capability to respond to the risk of fraud. The annual action plan would be presented to the Audit and Procurement Committee as part of its role to monitor the Fraud and Corruption Strategy.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership, having noted comments raised by the Audit and Procurement Committee, approves the Fraud and Corruption Strategy (attached at Appendix One of the report).

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

Any other items of public business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of business.