Training

Charity fraud report

by Mark Rowe

The accountancy firm PKF Littlejohn has published a new report – ‘The Resilience to Fraud of the Charity Sector in England and Wales 2015′ – with the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at University of Portsmouth.

Wwith a foreword by Oliver May, Head of Counter Fraud at Oxfam Great Britain, it’s described by the accountants as the most extensive and comprehensive report yet into how well charities are protected against fraud, building on a similar 2010 report. Jim Gee, PKF Littlejohn’s Head of Forensic and Counter Fraud services, spoke on the report at the Fraud Advisory Panel-Charity Commission first conference on fraud against the charity sector, in London on Friday, October 30. Oliver May was among the speakers at the event, which organisers hope to make an annual one. Chairs of the sessions included the lawyer David Kirk, chairman of the Panel; and Michelle Russell, Director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement at the Charity Commission. Other speakers came from charities and audit firms; Peter Clarke, the former senior counter-terror Met Police man now a board member of the Charity Commission, closed the day.

PKF defined Fraud resilience is a measure of how well organisations protect themselves against fraud (originally sponsored by the Government’s National Fraud Authority) with a rating of 0 (worst) to 50 (best). PKF Littlejohn and the University of Portsmouth worked with the Charity Commission to develop a charity-specific version of the Self-Assessment Fraud Resilience (SAFR) tool which was released for use in February 2015.

The report is based on the analysis of data provided by 392 charities in England and Wales who completed the SAFR tool; it highlights the current position and compares it with what was found five years ago. Overall, the charity sector achieved a mean score of 26.1 (24.2 in 2010) and median score of 26.5 (25.0 in 2010) out of a possible 50. Excluding the worst 10pc and the best 10pc of the 392 who used the SAFR tool, the scores ranged from 10 to 40.5. This represents a slight improvement since 2010, according to the report.

Pictured left to right are Jim Gee; Michelle Russell; and Stephen Fennell, barrister, Exchange Chambers, who spoke in the afternoon on how to respond to fraud, using the law as a tool in investigating allegations, and limiting damage.

More details

The event was filmed and the Panel (itself a charity) plans to make learning from the day available online.

Next events

The Panel’s next event is titled ‘people, data and fraud’ and runs on Friday, November 20 at Chartered Accountants’ Hall in London EC2R; a conference with the IIA. And the Panel is running its annual ‘fraud debate‘ on the evening of December 1, on the motion ‘This House believes that law enforcement does not have the means to tackle 21st century economic crime effectively’; again at Chartered Accountants’ Hall, in Moorgate Place.

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