According to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) report, Cutting costs and cutting fraud: economic crime in the public sector is that the current economic climate of spending cuts and pay freezes has lead to an increased rise in the level of employee and sub-contractor fraud. Based on a survey of senior representatives from the public sector, the report shows that, since PwC’s last survey in 2009, the number of organisations experiencing some type of fraud in the last 12 months has gone up by 60% and according to the 2011 National Fraud Authority Indicator equates to £21 billion a year. That is a substantial sum being defrauded from the public purse. Continue reading
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11/04/2011
PFI Academy conversion: payment matters
Sarah Thompson, Public Services Team, Dickinson Dees LLP:
Since the implementation of the Academies Act 2010 governing bodies of primary, secondary and SEN schools all (subject to performance) have the option of applying for new Academy Status. There is now a bit of momentum behind the programme and the number of schools looking to convert is increasing quite rapidly. Whilst being a PFI school is not a barrier to becoming an Academy, the process of conversion is more complicated than for non-PFI schools as the parties need more time to consider and negotiate issues arising out of the additional layer of contractual documentation required.
In this post, Sarah Thompson considers one such common issue, which is how the authority’s obligation to pay the Unitary Charge will be affected by the conversion.
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PLC Public Sector reports:
Following the recent Upper Tribunal decision finding against Kirklees Council, it is unlikely that the Information Commissioner will feature on many local authority Christmas card lists (to the extent that such things exist in these austere times). However, although the Upper Tribunal held that the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) do allow for the inspections of property search information free of charge, there has always been a question about whether the EIR regime could provide the basis for a viable personal search company operation.
A recent decision notice issued by the Information Commissioner adds weight to the argument that it will not and may mean that he starts to creep back on to some Christmas card lists.
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With the number of freedom of information requests increasing and the government’s transparency programme kicking in, reports in the press have highlighted the difference in approach that local authorities are taking to deal with the expense arising from these initiatives. These range from a refusal to comply with the government’s calls to publish data to a publish all approach – in this post, we consider these two opposing approaches in more detail.
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PLC Public Sector reports:
Benjamin Franklin may not have had public procurement specifically in mind when he set out this maxim, but it is certainly an approach which proves its validity on an ongoing basis. This post looks at some recent news stories that highlight the potential pitfalls of an inadequate planning stage in the public procurement process.
PLC Public Sector reports:
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