Forthcoming review: Tackling fraud in UK aid – country case studies

19 Dec 2023

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) will assess how well fraud risk is being managed by UK staff overseas, in the latest in a series of rapid reviews.

Fraud is an often hidden crime that, alongside error, costs the UK government between 0.5% and 5% of total spending, according to the Public Sector Fraud Authority.

While the UK government does not publish a figure for fraud detected in official development assistance (ODA), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) detected an overall fraud loss rate of 0.02% in 2020-21, in contrast to the 0.06% detected by the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2016.

Building on ICAI’s previous work on tackling fraud, this forthcoming review will explore practical examples across multiple countries – including Kenya, India and Mozambique – of how fraud risk is managed throughout the UK’s global aid delivery network.

We will examine how effectively staff managing country programmes identify and address fraud, how responsive they are to concerns raised and how the UK’s overseas network collaborates internally and externally to tackle the issue.

Using a mix of in-depth country case studies, additional broader case studies and reviews of current FCDO counter-fraud data and knowledge, the rapid review will look at the following questions:

1. Efficiency: How efficiently does the UK government deploy resources to ensure robust country-level fraud risk management in the aid delivery chain?
2. Effectiveness: How effective are the UK’s overseas teams at identifying and responding to fraud allegations and concerns in aid delivery?
3. Coherence: How well does the UK work across different UK government teams, departments and bodies (internal coherence), and with external partners (external coherence), to tackle fraud in aid delivery?

Publication is expected in March 2024.