Public reports pack PDF 3 MB - Blaby District Council

The Council is required by law to protect the public funds we administer. Fraud and error costs
public services an estimated £21 billion a year (National Fraud Authority (NFA) 2012 Annual
Fraud Indicator). For example, council tax fraud is estimated to cost local authorities is now
thought to cost £131 million a year, which is an increase of 32% from 2011 figures. In an effort to
protect against and tackle fraud, the Council is once again taking part in the National Anti Fraud
Initiative. We are therefore sharing information provided to us with other bodies through the Audit
Commission to detect potential fraudulent activity.
We are undergoing a Systems Thinking Intervention into Benefit Fraud Service. This has been
supported by the Department of Work and Pensions to deliver improvement in the quality of the
service. A new process for dealing with potential benefit fraud is being drawn up to ensure that
we focus on the work of most value to the Council. This includes joint working with the Job
Centre Plus, training of staff and preventative work.
During the first 2 quarters of this year, we there have been 2 prosecutions, 4 administrative
penalties and 1 caution issued. This equates to overpayments of nearly £6,000 of housing
benefit, council tax benefit, and council tax discount, and nearly £20,000 of other benefit fraud.
The work on the revision of the Corporate Plan 2011-14 Critical Activities includes an
assessment of potential risks associated with the delivery of these and mitigating actions to be
taken.
Monitoring of Cabinet Executive Decisions:
Ref Report Title Decision Current position
1255 Proposed Capital
Resources &
Programme 12/13
1217 Procurement of
Replacement System for
Revenues & Benefits
3. That the delegated authority
be granted to the Financial
Services Group Manager in
consultation with the Legal
Services Manager to purchase
the area of land for the Pavilion
Golf range development.
That the Financial Services
Group Manager be authorised to
take steps to conclude the
procurement process and
ultimately award the contract to
the preferred bidder.
4
Page 94
The legal process has now been
completed and this piece of land
has now transferred into the
ownership of the Council.
The contractual arrangements in
relation to this purchase were
finalised in October 2011. The
implementation of this project is
ongoing and the ‘go live’ date is
anticipated to be the 10 th
December 2012
September 2012