Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Audit and Risk Management to advise the Audit Committee of the 2008/09 National Fraud Initiative exercise.

The Head of Audit and Risk Management presented the report to advise the Committee of the 2008/09 National Fraud Initiative exercise. This was a statutory national data matching exercise, the council’s participation in which would be reviewed as part of the Use of Resources assessment. It was reported that the scope of the National Fraud Initiative would widen in 2008/09; more datasets would need to be submitted, and a wider range of participants would be involved, leading to a broader range of data matches available. As a result of this, there was a possibility that a greater level of investigation of possible data matches would be required when the NFI data was available; Internal Audit would support this work as required.

In response to a question from the Committee, the Head of Audit and Risk Management clarified the process and the role of the Audit Commission. It was confirmed that all data was transferred via a secure application.

The Chair welcomed the report, and felt that this initiative would encourage best practice and assist the Audit Committee in the discharge of its Terms of Reference.

RESOLVED

That the contents of the report be noted.