Audit Office: Fraudulent or incorrect payments top £270k in NI

The scheme paid out a total of £23m to 452 sports clubs and bodies

More than £270,000 of fraudulent or incorrect payments were paid out by public bodies in Northern Ireland in the last two years, the audit office has said.

A further £4.2m of potential payments have also been identified and prevented.

It followed a public sector data-sharing exercise carried out with the National Fraud Initiative (NFI).

NI's auditor general said it is vital public money is used appropriately.

"While it is impossible to eradicate fraud entirely, all public bodies in Northern Ireland have a duty to help minimise its impact and to maximise the proper use of funding for public services," Kieran Donnelly said.

The majority of cases identified related to pensions, the audit office said.

It uncovered 78 instances where deceased pensioners were still receiving a state pension.

That is a "significant rise" on the ten cases uncovered in the previous reporting period covering 2018/20, the office outlined.

It has recovered £126,000 of erroneous payments and said a further £4.1m of potential mistaken payments have been prevented.

Kieran Donnelly said all public bodies must help maximise the use of public funds

More than 80 public sector bodies took part in the NFI exercise which covered the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years.

It discovered a number of areas where fraud and erroneous payments had been made or prevented.

The audit office said it is possible Covid-19 may be a factor in the rise of pension cases.

It said the pandemic may also be a contributing factor to a drop in the number of cases of rates evasion in the latest audit.

A total of £58,000 has been recovered or prevented, the office said, in the most recent reporting period, a drop from £936,000 in 2018/20.

The amount of time rates staff were able to dedicate to the NFI investigation had been curtailed by Covid-19.

'Positive outcomes'

The report also identified 13 cases in which the wrong amount of housing benefit was paid out and uncovered two duplicate payments of a Covid-19 business support grant being paid.

Those cases resulted in £51,000 and £20,000 being recovered respectively.

A total of £40,000 that was overpaid to suppliers has now been recovered while the audit also identified a total of 2,145 blue badges for disabled motorists were registered to dead people in Northern Ireland.

That is a drop of almost 70% on the previous reporting period.

Mr Donnelly said he was keen to see more public sector bodies take part in the NFI initiative.

"I would call on organisations across the public sector here to strongly consider participating in future data matching exercises, so that we can continue to deliver these positive outcomes for citizens," he said.