ICAI welcomes government progress on fraud prevention but warns over staff cuts

25 Mar 2026

The government has made strong progress in strengthening fraud prevention in response to recommendations from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI).

ICAI’s latest review of tackling fraud in UK aid, published in March 2024, assessed how effectively fraud risk in UK aid was managed at the country level, through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) network of embassies and high commissions. It looked at case studies including India, Kenya and Mozambique.

The aid watchdog found that while the UK had a strong reputation for taking fraud seriously, under-investment in FCDO’s central anti-fraud teams left overseas staff without enough support and at greater risk. The review also highlighted inconsistent understanding among UK ambassadors and high commissioners of their fraud prevention responsibilities and found that FCDO was largely reactive rather than proactive in identifying fraud. 

ICAI made four recommendations, all of which the government either accepted or partially accepted in its response, published in May 2024. 

Revisiting progress on the recommendations in late 2025, ICAI found clear evidence of government action across all areas, including building a new internal fraud detection system, increasing counter-fraud staffing, investing in staff learning and development, conducting outreach to promote good counter-fraud practice, and providing greater clarity around ambassador and high commissioner oversight and accountability. But the watchdog warned that fraud risk is not static – especially as the government looks to ‘modernise’ the way it delivers aid – and raised concerns about the potential impact of FCDO’s ongoing major staff restructure on counter-fraud teams. 

ICAI Commissioner Liz Ditchburn said: 

“We welcome the strong progress made by government to strengthen anti-fraud practices in UK aid since our review and the picture of increasing maturity that this represents. Fraud risk is not static however and it is critical that this positive momentum is continued. As the government implements its new approach to international development and reduces staff, it will need to understand how this might change the profile of fraud risk and ensure that sufficient resources are maintained across all three lines of defence.” 

You can read the government’s progress update here.

ICAI’s assessment of progress can be found here.