Recommendation 15

Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic underlined the need to design counter-fraud measures, including controls, reporting and recovery, into new initiatives at an early stage of the policy cycle. Government could have maintained several basic standards of public accountability to minimise opportunities for fraud and corruption. It could have: increased transparency to parliament and the public; better managed conflicts of interest; promptly addressed known vulnerabilities; and ensured timely financial reporting.46 The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) recognised the imperative to build in fraud and corruption controls when new schemes are introduced. HM Treasury and the PSFA told us that government, to achieve its aim of designing out fraud from the start, has now introduced Initial Fraud Impact Assessments (IFIAs), which are embedded within HM Treasury’s formal spending approval processes.47 IFIAs are rapid initial assessments of the likely fraud risks in new major spending initiatives.48 HM Treasury told us that 700 of its staff have been trained on matters relating to fraud to ensure they are able to fulfil their responsibilities on scrutinising departmental IFIAs.49