Fraud is a type of criminal activity, defined as: 'abuse of position, or false representation, or prejudicing someone's rights for personal gain'. Put simply, fraud is an act of deception intended for personal gain.
Public Sector Fraud is one of seven groups of offence described in the "Taxonomy of Fraud" developed by the Serious Fraud Office. Organisations in Northern Ireland have not been immune to such criminality.
Peter Tickner has been at the forefront of Public Sector fraud detection and prevention for many years, helping develop processes to protect against fraud, bribery and corruption He emphasises the need to set the right tone and ethical standards at the very top of the organisation.
Peter will discuss current Whitehall thinking and initiatives around fraud prevention in government bodies and agencies as well as illustrating from his own experiences how an effective counter fraud function, linked to a public sector organisation's risk analysis, can proactively save both money and reputation. As well as drawing on his experiences with HM Treasury and the Metropolitan Police and more recently as the counter fraud advisor to the Care Quality Commission, Peter will discuss how public sector organisations can fundamentally damage their reputation by failing to tackle internal fraud issues before they become a major headache.
Peter Tickner started his professional auditing and investigating career as an external auditor in the National Health Service in the 1970s and was appointed Head of Internal Audit at Her Majesty's Treasury in February 1988, a post he held for seven and a half years. In 1995, Peter left the Treasury on appointment as the Director of Internal Audit for the Metropolitan Police in London. Here he had to build up a demoralised internal audit unit following its decimation after the Deputy Head of Scotland Yard's finances had been caught for a £5million fraud which had escaped internal detection for seven years. Within a year of his appointment, Peter was given authority to set up a separate investigative branch within the Met to investigate contractor and staff fraud and corruption. This highly successful unit at its peak was conducting between sixty and seventy internal investigations a year and over a ten year period was able to save £24million of tax-payers money.
Peter is Chair of the Institute of Counter Fraud Specialists and is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Internal Auditors (UK and Ireland). He has written two books on Fraud Investigation and is completing a book on Public Sector fraud and corruption which will be published next year.
This event is free to attend. Breakfast will be available at the start of the briefing.
To reserve a place on this breakfast briefing please click on the 'Register' button above and complete the online booking form or, alternatively, contact Kim McKnight, Chief Executives' Forum, (E) mail@ceforum.org, (T) 028 9034 7400 or 7406.