‘Someone Else's Money’: Learning from Economic Crime in the Public Sector

Abstract

The private sector has traditionally subsumed the issue of fraud within a general acceptance that there are certain costs relating to any commercial activity and, even if they are expensive to deal with, provided they do not rise at a rate faster than the rise in profits, they are not given a high priority. However, the current slump in profits, a reaction to the politics of the 1980s, and an increasingly competitive marketplace are now encouraging more attention to be paid to costs. In the public sector there is no performance indicator of profit. Much of the focus has been on the cost of the delivery of the goods and services and the value for money that it represents. Public sector fraud is therefore often a matter for media or parliamentary attention. In considering how such awareness develops, the problems of dealing with long‐established evidence of fraud and corruption and the multi‐faceted nature of any reform package, this paper considers the recent developments within the Property Services Agency. This case study offers a salutary warning of the need to tackle fraud and corruption earlier rather than later and also underlines the fact that, whether the fraud and corruption occurs in a public or a private sector organisation, it is management's responsibility to deal with it.