Welsh government fraud losses 'could be worth millions'

The number of suspected fraud cases against the Welsh government has doubled in the past year, from 9 to 18.

AMs on the public accounts committee heard they could be worth millions of pounds, but it depended on the progress of police investigations.

Committee chair Darren Millar said: "I am alarmed that we have seen such a significant increase."

Top civil servant Sir Derek Jones said 18 was only 0.3% of the organisations funded, but it was "clearly worrying".

Sir Derek, the Welsh government's most senior civil servant, added that it was "very problematic when it happens".

Few details were given to the committee, other than that the cases were mainly in one area of business and one part of Wales.

"It's not a huge problem, but we are dealing with them," he said

Extra resources have been put into the counter-fraud unit to deal with the pressure as a result of the complexity of the investigations, Sir Derek said.

Sir Derek Jones was questioned on a range of issues, for more than an hour

Sir Derek also told the committee:

• The Welsh government wrote off nearly £3m in 2014/15, because the shelf life expired of drugs that had been bought to deal with a potential flu pandemic

• The number of Welsh government civil servants has reduced by around 1,000 during the course of this assembly, since 2011, with another 120 forecast to go by the end of the year - cutting the number of staff to around 5,100

• Defending the Welsh government's grant management record, Sir Derek said that more than 1,000 grants had been given out in recent years and efforts were now being made to recover money in 14 cases