In July this year, HM Revenue & Customs made its first arrest for alleged fraud relating to the UK government’s furlough scheme.
As more reports come to light, with inevitably strong political and public support, governments are preparing to crack down aggressively on Covid relief fraud. These abuses arise from gaps that arose in the race to launch stimulus packages at the early stages of the outbreak.
As the dust settles, regaining public confidence through accountability for the use of public funds will become paramount for policymakers.
FRA Director Kaisa Karvonen discusses how Covid stimulus measures could be vulnerable fraud, and how various governments are trying to combat this, in FT Adviser.
