A public sector data matching exercise has resulted in nearly £3.7 million of potential fraud and error being successfully identified or prevented over the last two years. The findings are summarised in a report on the eighth National Fraud Initiative (NFI) exercise in Northern Ireland, published today (Tuesday 22 October 2024) by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Dorinnia Carville.
The NFI is a computer-based data matching exercise run every two years. Public bodies including government departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies, councils and health sector bodies participate, with their respective data sets matched to help identify potentially fraudulent and erroneous transactions.
For the reporting period April 2022 to March 2024, over £3.7 million of actual and estimated fraud and error was either detected or prevented through NFI data matching, a decrease from around £4.4 million in the previous exercise (for 2020-22).
Of the total amount recovered or prevented, the majority (over £3 million) related to pension fraud, error and overpayments. Again, this represented a decrease from around £4 million in the previous reporting period. The vast majority of pension outcomes stem from a small number of cases where the pensioner died relatively young and was in receipt of a significant pension.
Welcoming the outcomes summarised in today’s report, Dorinnia Carville commented:
“While it is impossible to eradicate fraud entirely, all public bodies in Northern Ireland have a duty to help minimise its impact and to maximise the proper use of funding for public services. The NFI exercises have proven to be a valuable tool in achieving this, with over £48 million of public money in Northern Ireland recovered or protected to date.
The NFI has also played a positive role in making public bodies more aware of fraud and encouraging them to put in place effective controls. This has been reflected in the lower amounts detected in some datasets since our previous report.
There is the potential to further build on this progress through increased participation in the NFI project and the use of additional datasets. I would continue to encourage public sector organisations to join in this collective effort, so that we can deliver further savings and positive outcomes for organisations and taxpayers.”
Other findings and savings noted in today’s report include:
•
Outcomes relating to rates have increased significantly with over £500,000 recovered or prevented in this reporting period compared with £57,000 in 2020-22. This is due to renewed focus on data matches now that staff are no longer occupied on high priority COVID-19 related work.
•
Over £90,000 in duplicate payments recovered from suppliers.
The full report, which also includes case examples illustrating the value of data matching, is available to download from the Publications section of our website.