New strategy on fraud, financial crime and financial abuse

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities, is calling for charities to better protect themselves against fraud and financial crime, in response to the National Fraud Authority"s (NFA) latest report. The NFA"s Annual Fraud Indicator shows charities estimate losing 1.7% of their annual income to fraud, equal to £1.1billion of the sector"s income for 2010/11. The most common types of fraud were cited as payment fraud, fraud by employees or volunteers and cyber fraud. To help charities address the threat, the Charity Commission has published its new strategy for dealing with fraud, financial crime and financial abuse. The strategy aims to prevent problems from occurring by alerting charities to the risks of fraud and financial crime and providing online guidance to help them to manage these risks. Although it is the role of the police to investigate or prosecute fraud, it is the Charity Commission"s to establish how criminal matters arose and whether the trustees have responded appropriately. Where necessary the Commission will intervene to ensure charity funds are protected and put the charity back on secure footing. The Commission is currently co-leading a joint charity fraud project, which brings together a number of organisations to reduce the risk of fraud to the charitable sector. Supporting Fighting Fraud Together, the government"s UK strategy for tackling fraud, the group will shortly publish useful information for both charities and the public on how to protect themselves against fraud. For further information on the new strategy visit www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Our_regulatory_activity/Our_approach/ccs_fraud_financial_crime.aspx.