Fraud in the public sector

The Government & Public Sector industry report was carried out whilst the private sector was in the throes of the downturn, therefore it provides real insight for the UK public sector facing budget constraints and staff reductions whilst having to achieve the same targets and identifies areas of increased fraud risk for organisations.

  • In the UK, 52% of public sector organisations experienced economic crime in the last 12 months.
  • 41% of respondents stated that the risk of job loss is the primary incentive to commit fraud.
  • Staff reductions have resulted in fewer resources being deployed on internal controls - the lesson learnt from the private sector is this will increase fraud risk.
  • 31% of fraud in the public sector is detected by internal tip offs, whilst the majority of private sector frauds are uncovered by internal audit and fraud risk management.
  • Zero tolerance does not always mean zero tolerance.  The survey shows that organisations are often reluctant to bring charges against employees because of the time and costs associated with developing a case.

The results of our survey show quite clearly that economic crime is real and is happening within the Government and the public sector, read the full report to find out more.