Anti-fraud and corruption policy

2.1 The Council will not tolerate fraudulent or corrupt acts and will take firm action against those who defraud the authority, who are corrupt or engage in financial malpractice.

2.2 The Council will fulfil the responsibility to reduce fraud and protect our resources by a strategic approach consistent with that outlined in the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Strategy 2020 and CIPFA’s Managing the Risk of Fraud and Corruption.

2.3 The Council’s employees and Members have a key role in maintaining this culture. The Council has implemented effective whistleblowing arrangements and employees and Members are encouraged to raise any serious concerns about the Council’s work, including any reasonable belief that fraud or corruption is occurring.

2.4 The desired culture is reinforced through the Council’s behavioural competencies which are embedded in policies and procedures, where values of openness and honesty are specifically mentioned.

2.5 The Council aims to learn from any incidences of fraud or corruption and where there have been breakdowns in systems, procedures or governance arrangements, these will be reviewed and will be controls put in place to prevent a reoccurrence.

2.6 We will Work with our partners and other investigative bodies to strengthen and continuously improve our arrangements to prevent fraud and corruption.