MORE than £5.5m of actual and estimated fraud involving state bodies has been detected over the last two years.
Details of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) were revealed yesterday by the Northern Ireland Audit Office.
The report, which is produced every two years, reveals how fraud has been detected in various state run organisations.
The most recent report is the sixth to be produced in the north since participation in the initiative began in 2008.
The NFI is a data matching tool which helps to identify potentially fraudulent and erroneous transactions, using sophisticated computer-based data matching techniques.
Those involved range from Stormont departments, non-departmental public bodies, councils and health sector organisations.
More than 80 public bodies took part in the exercise which also saw local date matched held by public sector organisations in England, Scotland and Wales.
Between April 2018 to March 2020, more than £5.5 million of actual and estimated fraud and error was detected or prevented.
Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General, said “detecting fraud is a challenge for all organisations, including the public sector”.
“It is essential that organisations in receipt of public money do all that they can to minimise losses to fraud, in order to maximise the proper use of funding for public services,” he said.
