With increasing press coverage of potential eye-watering levels of potential fraud from COVID support schemes it is worth remembering the mantra about protecting the public pound drummed into us as public sector professionals from an early stage. There is always going to be inherent risk when you are granting or loaning money to individuals or businesses and that exponentially increases when we don't have all the time to design perfect systems and agree controls you would normally have more time to devote to.
Sometimes good enough has to be balanced with recognising the value of getting that public pound to those most in need, who, without support, may end up costing the public purse even more in the future. Any public pound lost is wrong but we are also up against some very sophisticated fraudsters who make it their business to take what isn't theirs.
With increasing press coverage of potential eye-watering levels of potential fraud from COVID support schemes it is worth remembering the mantra about protecting the public pound drummed into us as public sector professionals from an early stage. There is always going to be inherent risk when you are granting or loaning money to individuals or businesses and that exponentially increases when we don't have all the time to design perfect systems and agree controls you would normally have more time to devote to.
Sometimes good enough has to be balanced with recognising the value of getting that public pound to those most in need, who, without support, may end up costing the public purse even more in the future. Any public pound lost is wrong but we are also up against some very sophisticated fraudsters who make it their business to take what isn't theirs.
We also need to recognise there will be genuine cases of error. We have seen how many versions of guidance our teams have dealt with, changing often and sometimes even after there have been awards.
We are lucky to have dedicated teams that have been bombarded with new scheme after new scheme to administer this year. As we all work through post-award evaluations there will be cases that get picked up that were genuine errors. The crestfallen stance when one is found – although welcome because it shows our teams are as dedicated to getting things right – is very much tempered by a reasonableness test. There have been genuine errors from some applicants, which when tested even further have been identified, but, let's face it, even we know some of the national guidance that has come out has included ambiguous definitions.
We must keep in mind the valuable lessons we learn during this period. But striking that balance continues on.
Adele Taylor is director of resources at Windsor & Maidenhead RLBC
