Tuesday 10th September Cabinet Office Minister , will today convene senior
officials from the UK's closest intelligence allies to coordinate
the fight against Covid fraud.
The meeting of Five Eyes - an intelligence alliance between the
UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - will
help to identify ways governments have been successfully
detecting, recouping and prosecuting fraud committed during the
pandemic.
Lessons learnt during today's meeting will contribute to the
ongoing work of the Public Sector Fraud Authority as it seeks to
further support departments to prevent, detect and recover fraud
and error.
The meeting forms the centrepiece of the fourth summit of the
International Public Sector Fraud Forum held this week in
London.
The Forum was originally set up by the UK Government in 2018 to
encourage cooperation between the Five Eyes to reduce public
sector fraud within member countries and across borders.
This is also the first time the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) will attend the summit. The
OECD's Anti-Corruption and Integrity Division has collaborated
with the Public Sector Fraud Authority to lead talks on the
pivotal role of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in
fraud prevention.
Today's meeting comes as the UK Government redoubles efforts to
tackle Covid fraud.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer recently announced recruitment
for a fixed term Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner to scrutinise
contracts awarded during the pandemic and ensure that everything
possible is done to recover money lost to fraud.
Minister Gould, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office,
said:
"Criminal networks threaten governments around the world and
don't respect international borders, so it's vital we work with
our allies to keep public money safe. Through today's meeting we
will learn from our closest intelligence partners to help us
redouble our efforts to track and recover public money lost to
fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic."
Mark Cheeseman, Chief Executive of the Public Sector Fraud
Authority, said:
"In the modern world, the threat of fraud against public bodies
is a known issue that requires collaboration. This week brings
together leading experts from across partner countries to drive
ourselves further in stopping those who attack the system
dishonestly."
