Report to:

 

Governance Committee

Date:

 

30 September 2021

By:

 

Chief Operating Officer

Title of report:

 

East Sussex County Council Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy and Framework

 

Purpose of report:

 

To present the Council’s recently updated Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy and Framework

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Governance Committee is asked to agree the Council’s Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy and Framework

 

 

 

1.         Background

 

1.1         The purpose of this report is to provide details of the main changes and rationale for updating and amending the Council’s Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy and Framework. The Strategy and Framework is attached at Appendix A and was agreed by the Audit Committee at its meeting on 17 September 2021.

 

2.         Supporting Information

 

2.1       This counter fraud strategy is aligned to ‘Fighting Fraud & Corruption Locally’ (FFCL), the Local Government Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy for the 2020s, which provides a blueprint for a tougher response to fraud and corruption perpetrated against local authorities. The previous two FFCL strategies focused upon pillars of activity, or strategic objectives, where the Council concentrated its counter-fraud efforts. These were ‘acknowledge’, ‘prevent’ and ‘pursue’.  The FFCL strategy 2020 has now been expanded to include two additional areas of activity that underpin tenets of those pillars; ‘govern’ and ‘protect’.

 

2.2       ‘Protect’ is a new overarching responsibility to protect the public from fraud.  ‘Govern’ is added as a new foundation of the Strategy, which sets out that those who are charged with governance, support the activity by ensuring that there are robust arrangements in place and that executive support exists to ensure anti-fraud, bribery and corruption measures are embedded throughout the organisation.

 

2.3         The amendments made to the ESCC Strategy include the following:

 

·                     Aligning the pillars of the strategy to FFCL (addition of Govern and Protect);

·                     An updated table summarising the activities required to achieve the strategic objectives included within the Strategy document under the heading ‘Action Plan’;

·                     An introductory statement reinforcing leadership support for counter fraud measures (in line with FFCL).

 

 

 

 

3.         Conclusions and Reasons for Recommendation

 

3.1       The amendments set out above strengthen the Council’s compliance with best practice and ensures the revised strategy reflects recent organisational changes.

 

 

RUSSELL BANKS

Orbis Chief Internal Auditor, Business Services Depertment           

Contact Officers: Simon White, Audit Manager Tel No. 07779 455501

 

 

LOCAL MEMBERS: All

 

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None