County council fraud investigations ‘going back years’

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Investigations into potential fraud committed by Powys County Council staff could go back years, a council chief has said.

The work of the council’s counter anti-error and fraud team (CAFT) hopes to clawback £1.329 million for the authority by the end of March, and was discussed by councillors and independent lay members at a meeting of the council’s Governance and Audit committee earlier this month.

The ongoing work of CAFT saw them have 60 ongoing investigations on their books at the end of December, including six investigations into council staff.

Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Elwyn Vaughan asked: “Is there a time frame to sort those six cases out? Because it’s very important that a clear message is sent to members of staff about their duties and responsibilities.”

He added that all councillors had a legal “fiduciary duty” to act in the best financial interests of the council.

“It would send a very clear message of openness and transparency to the public,” said Cllr Vaughan.

CAFT senior investigator Yvette Kottaun explained that providing a time frame for these investigations would be “very difficult”.

Ms Kottaun said: “You cannot say that you’re going to investigate this in six weeks or six months.

“Until you are actually investigating you don’t know how far it takes you.”

Ms Kottaun gave the committee a “hypothetical” case to explain how her team would handle allegations of suspicious expense claims over a six-month period, that had been made by a council worker.

Ms Kottaun said: “We would get the information from payroll and the service area. It would then be reasonable for us to look further back (than six months) to see if this situation has been happening for longer.

“It could be that we are looking at three of four years’ worth of claims. We would then need to look at what checks have been made by the line management about approving claims, had any of the claims been challenged?

“There are so many things, and we are reliant on getting information from the service area as it’s not our responsibility to be signing off all employees claims for mileage and whatever else. It takes as long as it takes.”

She explained that this was how her team dealt with every single case and not just those involving council staff.

Ms Kottaun said: “It’s about looking at evidence and showing we have explored every avenue that points to or from any offences being committed.”

Investigations would also show whether the departmental processes within the council work and whether policies need to be tightened up.

The report explains that at the end of December, the team were also investigating 16 cases of council tax discounts and 17 cases of council tax reductions for potential fraud.

A further eight investigations are taking place into potential tenancy fraud and three housing benefit cases.

The report was noted by the committee.