Britain’s government has lost tens of billions of pounds to fraud in recent years, with most public bodies incapable to grasp the scale of the problem, the independent public spending watchdog said on Thursday.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said government accounts indicated fraud worth a total of 21 billion pounds ($25.87 billion) in the 2020-21 and 2021/22 financial years – up from 5.5 billion pounds in the previous two years.
Of that, 7.3 billion pounds were related to temporary COVID-19 schemes, much of which comprised loans to businesses. The cost of deception may be much higher still, the NAO said, indicating figures from the Public Sector Fraud Authority which estimated fraud and error across government at between 33.2 billion pounds and 58.8 billion pounds for the 2020-21 year alone, excluding pandemic-related spending.
The NAO said most government departments had little ability to counter fraud or even understand how big the risk was. NAO head Gareth Davies said that there has been a substantial increase in the level of fraud reported in the annual reports and accounts we audit.
In addition to the loss of taxpayer money, it creates the risk that people come to perceive fraud and corruption across government as normal and tolerated. If not tackled, this could affect public confidence in the integrity of public services.”
Gareth Davies-Gareth Davies said
UK’s standing in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index dropped sharply last year, which it explained to a recent decline in standards in government and controls over the use of taxpayer money.
It stressed the government’s “VIP lane” for fast-tracking personal defensive equipment contracts at the peak of the pandemic, which it said systematically favored firms with links to the governing Conservative Party.
Finance minister Jeremy Hunt said Wednesday that tackling both tax and state benefits fraud were priorities for the government. The opposition Labour Party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the report showed a “dereliction of duty.”
She added that this government have completely abdicated their responsibility to crackdown on this criminality, leaving public bodies without the resources to combat it effectively and protect the public’s money.
