By AML Intelligence Correspondents
BRITAIN’S new government is to appoint a commissioner to co-ordinate investigations into Covid contract fraud and recover some £3bn lost to swindles.
The so-called “Covid Corruption Tsar’ will co-ordinate inquiries with HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency in the all-out strategy to recover billions of pounds.
New Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants the Treasury to recoup £2.6bn lost thru waste, fraud and flawed contracts.
The HMRC, SFO and NCA have been gearing up for months in preparation of the new government’s long signalled crackdown on Covid fraud.
“It’s a way of targeting the corruption that was allowed proliferate under the last government – which that government ignore – but also a way to generate billions for the exchequer,” said an insider today.
“Some of this is low hanging fruit, others will involved major investigations but it is important to get the message across that industrial fraud at this scale will not be tolerated,” the source added.
In total it is estimated £7.6bn was lost in Covid-related fraud – including grants and business loans and other handouts.
Labour said during the election campaign that billions could be recovered from the fraudulent contracts. However some £4bn of the total is thought to be irrecoverable.
Reeves is set to tell MPs today that the commissioner will “get back what is owed to the British people” – saying the money has been “in the hands of fraudsters” when it belongs in public services.
“I will not tolerate waste. I will treat taxpayers’ money with respect and I will return stability to our public finances,” the Chancellor is saying in a prepared statement.
The search for the new “Covid Corruption Tsar” will begin later this week and she or he will work report directly to Reeves under the auspices of the Department of Health and Social Care.
“The past government hiked taxes, while allowing waste and inefficiency to spiral out of control,” according to Reeves.
“Nowhere was this more evident than during the pandemic, particularly when it came to PPE. Because the former prime minister when he was chancellor signed cheque after cheque after cheque for billions of pounds’ worth of contracts that did not deliver for the NHS when it needed it. That is unacceptable.”
Plans in the Labour manifesto included:
- review of sentencing on fraud and corruption conducted against public purse
- reform of procurement to include a “debarment and exclusion” regime for anyone complicit in fraud
Official figures revealed that the government wasted nearly £10bn in total on unusable PPE during the Covid crisis.
Accounts published in January showed nearly three-quarters spent on PPE during the pandemic was written off.
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