The council’s fraud team aims to recover over £1 million while tackling multiple investigations involving staff and council tax fraud.
Powys: The council’s counter anti-error and fraud team, known as CAFT, is working hard to recover £1.329 million by the end of March. They discussed their progress at a recent Governance and Audit committee meeting.
As of December, CAFT had 60 investigations ongoing, including six involving council staff. This raised some eyebrows, and Cllr Elwyn Vaughan wanted to know how long it would take to resolve those cases.
He emphasized the importance of sending a clear message to staff about their responsibilities. Cllr Vaughan pointed out that all councillors have a legal duty to act in the council’s best financial interests.
Yvette Kottaun, a senior investigator with CAFT, mentioned that providing a timeline for these investigations is tricky. She explained that until they dive into the details, it’s hard to predict how long it will take.
To illustrate, she shared a hypothetical case about suspicious expense claims made by a council worker. They would need to gather information from payroll and look back further than six months to see if there’s a pattern.
It could mean digging through several years of claims. They also need to check how line management has been approving these claims and whether any have been questioned.
“It takes as long as it takes,” she said, stressing that they follow the same thorough process for every case, not just those involving staff.
Ms. Kottaun added that their investigations help ensure that the council’s processes are effective and that policies are up to date. By the end of December, they were also looking into cases of council tax discounts and reductions for potential fraud.
Additionally, they had eight investigations into tenancy fraud and three related to housing benefits. The committee took note of the report, highlighting the ongoing efforts to tackle fraud in the council.
