Council audit reveals £213k benefit fraud

HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds worth of benefit fraud and a £1,400 theft from a nursery have been revealed in an internal audit of Midlothian Council.

The audit, which was due to go before councillors this morning , revealed 213,000 worth of benefit fraud identified after a damning report by Audit Scotland, which called for improved procedures to weed out fraud.

In addition, the internal audit also discovered that approved guidance for managing voluntary school funds had not been applied in a nursery unit in a local primary school and 1,400 had been stolen. The primary school has not been named.

Overall, the audit found that the majority of council departments remained at risk of fraud or inefficiencies.

Two departments were found to have poor internal controls, and a further ten were rated below par, compared with just five departments which were given a good rating.

None of the departments were given an excellent rating.

Risk and audit manager Gerald Tait said: "The general finding was that internal control required to be improved further so that the risk of fraud and inefficiencies could be reduced to an acceptable degree."