Mandating the measurement of public sector fraud

The financial burden on the taxpayer through public sector fraud is a significant historical problem. The final Annual Fraud Indicator produced in 2013 by the now disbanded National Fraud Authority (NFA) suggests that hidden fraud losses experienced by the UK's public sector could amount to £19.9 billion. Whilst this is a commendable estimate, it is only the tip of the iceberg because some of the component data are afforded confidence levels that suggest there is still room for improvement. For example, grant fraud data are assessed as poor, and the estimated losses to procurement fraud are only allocated an average level of confidence. When the aforementioned estimate is combined with detected fraud losses of £702 million this reveals that potentially, the public sector is a victim of fraud to the tune of a minimum of £20.6 billion per annum.