HC Deb 24 May 2000 vol 350 c565W
Mr. Menzies Campbell

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate his Department has made of the yearly cost to its budget of fraud in relation to procurement contracts. [122756]

Dr. Moonie

[holding answer 19 May 2000]: The Department regards the whole of its procurement budget as being at risk from fraud. The cost of detected fraud is, however, difficult to quantify. The process followed is to assume, once an investigation of a potential fraud begins, that the whole contract value is at risk. Values are then revised as the case progresses to completion. On this basis, the Department's estimates of the value of procurement fraud over the last five years are as follows:

£
1995–96 2,700
1996–97 No value
1997–98 1,000
1998–99 14,343
1999–2000 11,796,326

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