A journey into counter fraud

I recently took on the responsibility for coordinating and providing counter fraud information to the membership of BUFDG and its partner organisation which of course include UHR, writes procurement specialist Emma Keenan. The huge range of information Matt Sisson of BUFDG handed over left me pretty terrified at all the ways universities could be deceived into handing over information and / or money or things.

I soon realised that my learning journey is the same for everyone responsible for this topic in an institution, so I thought it may be helpful to document my experiences. Hopefully this will help others who want a quick route to all they need to know – and what they don’t!

As the Procurement Specialist for HEPA I have some experience. I have completed the CIPS Ethics training also the HEPA Bribery Act training, both free for members. I am aware of the risks of billing fraud, where a supplier might submit a false, duplicated or inflated invoice. I know also about a great number of purchase order frauds, where a PO resembling a genuine university PO is sent to a supplier with instructions to ship expensive goods to an address with no relationship to that university. “Bid-Rigging” and collusion have always been something to be mindful of and I found the new advice by the Competition and Markets Authority last year most helpful.

I know something about Phishing emails (sadly) both professionally and privately, and have taught my children about not sharing personal data online. I am also pretty sure offers of great sums of money from distant Nigerian royal relatives are not to be trusted!

What I have discovered however, is that outside my area of expertise, spotting and dealing with the potential for fraudulent activity is a minefield. We cannot know everything that happens throughout our own universities, let alone a national and international sector, so my first observation is that collaboration really must be the best way to approach and combat the risks. 

So, after spending several hours trawling the internet and jumping around all kinds of topics (some more useful than others), I decided there must be a starting point. This point I think is a focus on training. Educating all staff on the basics must be the best first sensible step any institution can make. On the UHR website the free Introduction to Counter Fraud e learning can be accessed by anyone in a university and will arm each and every person with some key skills to identify where the risks are what to do about any suspicious behaviour.

Following that, the Universities who seem to be doing well in this area are those where they have a good reporting network. Creating an environment where colleagues can easily and safely report anything out of the ordinary to a specific person will mean not only clear visibility of all unusual behaviour, but it will also encourage openness and discourage the potential for internal fraud.

UHR members are used to receiving collaborative support via the discussion boards which could be a good way to share your experiences. They are available to all members and can be used to post information on new fraudulent activity (I can also post for you if you want to alert others but remain anonymous).They can also be used as a great source of information for past events. The boards are searchable and almost all messages have a name attached so you can contact a peer directly to ask for their advice on the specific topic.

I found great information on the Fraud website pages here. A flowchart for fraud theft, as well as a Toolkit which provides a policy detailing a typical University Fraud Response Plan are both excellent.  I hope to build on the resources available as well as ensure our material is always kept up to date.

BUFDG has a great list of counter fraud champions and an associated working group – I can link UHR members into that if it helps. I have organised the next meeting of the working group to take place on 12^th December in London.  At that meeting we are going to focus on a review of our group terms of reference and think about what we need to focus on regarding training, advice, tools and resources over the next 12 months.  Please do get in touch if there is anything you want raised.