National Fraud Initiative

Newport City Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers and may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.   

The Auditor General for Wales audits the accounts of the council and is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises. 

Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one body 
against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match - this is usually personal information.

Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation.

No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out. 
 
The Auditor General requires us to participate in a data matching 
exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud.

We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Auditor General for matching for each exercise, these are set out in the Audit Wales’ guidance.   

The use of data by the Auditor General in a data matching exercise is 
carried out with statutory authority under his powers in Part 3 of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018.
 
Data matching by the Auditor General is subject to a Code of Practice (pdf). 
 
Read more about the National Fraud Initiative.

Contact

Contact Newport City Council and ask for the chief internal auditor.