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This article aims to focus on the impact of the current austerity measures on UK public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity building initiative developed over the years to tackle fraud against the public purse.

The article draws on secondary sources of data and available literature on fraud and financial crime.

Fraud is a challenge in the UK public sector but the cut-back on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resources, given the scale of public sector fraud, the growing emphasis on accountability and the time of austerity with public money more exposed to fraud is arguably a back-door/u-turn policy on zero-tolerance approach in tackling public sector fraud and financial crime. There is the potential of this encouraging more fraud and financial crime against the public sector in the long term if measures are not taken to devise strategies for enhancing anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity.

The research implication for this article is that it opens an avenue for future studies to examine post austerity strategies for strengthening public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource strategies to deal with emerging fraud threats to UK public sector.

This article acts as a reference guide for policymakers to reflect on the long-term adverse impact of the austerity on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity and capability in tackling fraud public sector fraud.

The paper attempts to present an alternative lens to examining the scale of UK public sector fraud problem rather than relying on headline story of declining fraud in UK.

Increased fraudulent practices have heightened the need for innovation in anti-fraud programs, necessitating the development of analytics techniques for detecting and preventing fraud. The subject of fraud analytics will continue to expand in the future for public-sector organizations; therefore, this research examined the progress of fraud analytics in public-sector transactions and offers suggestions for its future development.

This study systematically reviewed research on fraud analytics development in public-sector transactions. The review was conducted from June 2021 to June 2023 by identifying research objectives and questions, performing literature quality assessment and extraction, data synthesis and research reporting. The research mainly identified 43 relevant articles that were used as references.

This research examined fraud analytics development related to public-sector financial transactions. The results revealed that fraud analytics expansion has not spread equally, as most programs have been implemented by governments and healthcare organizations in developed countries. This research also exposed that the analytics optimization in fraud prevention is higher than for fraud detection. Such analytics help organizations detect fraud, improve business effectiveness and efficiency, and refine administrative systems and work standards.

This research offers comprehensive insights for researchers and public-sector professionals regarding current fraud analytics development in public-sector financial transactions and future trends.

This study presents the first systematic literature review to investigate the development of fraud analytics in public-sector transactions. The findings can aid scholars' and practitioners' future fraud analytics development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the increasing role of financial auditing in the fight against government sector fraud and financial mismanagement in Ghana, Africa. Using a Foucauldian‐inspired theoretical framing, the paper explores the growing cases of fraud in the Ghanaian public sector and the technologies of government that have been enlisted to combat it. The paper also discusses the particular interests that are likely served by the push for financial audits as the preferred weapon for fighting government sector fraud in the country.

The approach of the paper is qualitative involving the use of a variety of archival material and interviews with employees of the Ghana Audit Service, the Controller and Accountant‐General's Department, and global agencies like the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The paper finds that contrary to the view of “auditing as an alien phenomenon in most parts of the Third World, certainly Africa,” financial auditing is the preferred approach to fighting government sector fraud in Ghana. The paper also shows that financial auditing is privileged over other technologies of government, in this context, largely because it reinforces the hegemony of international development agencies like the World Bank and the imperialism of the big four accounting firms.

The paper adds insight into the increasing role of financial auditing in the fight against government sector fraud and financial mismanagement in Ghana.

Detecting and preventing fraud are challenging and risky tasks, especially in a fast developing economy such as Nigeria. The efforts become crucial in the government sectors, as they involve public’s trust and resources. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the fraud incidence and the elements of fraud triangle theory (FTT) with the aim of combating current fraud outrages in the Nigerian public sector.

A survey was conducted and 302 questionnaires were distributed to the staff of the departments of accounting, internal auditing and investigation of ten selected ministries, departments and agencies of Kano State, Nigeria. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data.

The study reveals a significant relationship between three elements of FTT and fraud incidences in the Nigerian public sectors (p-value < 0.001 for pressure and opportunity and p-value = 0.024 for rationalization).

The findings of the study are useful for forensic accountants and the Nigerian anti-graft bodies to enhance existing control mechanisms in fraud prevention initiatives. The research also contributes to bridge the gap in academic theory and empirical study related to FTT.

Fraud scandals can cause public’s frustration, damage the reputation and integrity of the ruling government and result in negative image of the public sector.

Accordingly, the study suggests a salary scale reform (SSR) in the Nigerian public sector and improvement in fringe benefits to increase employees’ standard of living. The study concludes with recommendations to enhance fraud awareness and training programs to the government employees.

This paper aims to explore and compare the perception of public sector employees on fraud and associated fraud behaviours.

The population of this study comprised 44 managers from the Malaysian Federal government departments. The analysis was based on an open-response questionnaire using data-driven thematic analysis. This was based on the context and latent content of the respondents. The items in the questionnaire examined the perceived definition, actions and experience of corruption in their departments.

The findings revealed that respondents acknowledged that bribery as one of the central element of fraud. They recognise fraudulent behaviour and practice in their organisation together with sharing these experiences in the study. Common results indicate that leaders play a major role in shaping the organisation as they present themselves as a model to the mployees. From the human resource perspective, having multiple side businesses while being in employed in the government sector would heavily impact performance and accountability.

Fraud is observed as a practice that needs to be addressed to improve government efficiency. The uniqueness was that the respondents acknowledged the existence of fraud and its implications through the activities of bribery, abuse of power and giving out favours. There is a need for organisations to focus on transparency and value to mitigate fraud.

This paper contributes towards the continuous effort in expanding fraud literature and human behaviour. The data obtained was distinctive in terms of the perspective of a developing economy and such fraud information and responses are different as compared to developed economies.

The empirical study of the public sector organisations enables important contribution towards effective public governance and administration. The results have important implications for preparing functional strategic management and controls for the public sector.

This paper aims to investigate the disclosure of fraud-related activities in public sector organisations in Australia. Specifically, the study reviews and evaluates the level and nature of fraud control information in annual reports of Commonwealth agencies and bodies.

The study uses a qualitative approach with the aim of expanding the body of empirical literature on disclosure of fraud control information in annual reports. The study further uses the theory of accountability – an essential concept for organisations that exist for public interest.

The results show that there is some prima facie evidence of public accountability. However, these results suggest that current disclosures of fraud-related activities in annual reports are failing to ensure the public is aware of activities used to combat fraud and its implications for the public interest.

The results have important implications for developing a framework for good reporting of fraud control activities.

This research study adds to the limited body of knowledge regarding how public entities discharge their accountability in relation to their fraud control activities.

This paper aims to explore how the phenomena of corruption and fraud in the public sector have been portrayed in the literature using the Audit Society Framework (Power, 1997).

The authors conducted a structured literature review (Massaro et al., 2016) to unveil relevant literature in the area of corruption and fraud in the public sector.

Results highlight that the literature using “The Audit Society” theory is still scant. Notwithstanding the call for a more decisive role of auditors in fighting corruption and fraud, much is still to be discovered about consequences of auditing and what “good quality” is.

The main limitation is that only literature in English has been included.

This paper helps practitioners and policymakers to take and implement informed decisions with regards to the fight against fraud and corruption.

In calling for more research in the domain of audit, fraud and corruption in the public sector, this paper promotes a higher focus of society on public interest and the common good.

This paper investigates one part of The Audit Society related to corruption and fraud, topics that are still very underdeveloped and unexplored by researchers. From the findings the authors suggest possible new avenues for further research.

This paper aims to explore the challenges faced in combating fraudulent practices in the Nigerian public sector.

This paper is essentially the result of primary data of in-depth semi-structured interviews. An in-depth interview was conducted with 14 respondents comprises (4) auditors, (4) accountants, (2) legal practitioners, (2) staff of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and (2) staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service. The interviews data collected were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

This study found that among the challenges to combat fraudulent practices in the Nigerian public sector is first the prevalence of Godfatherism in the Nigerian public sector. Godfatherism offers selective judgment, lack of agencies autonomous and the party system which remains a challenge. Second, the issue of political immunity undermines public governance which illustrates an exemption of punishment, constitutional protections and the political environment are some major challenges faced in preventing fraud in the Nigerian public sector.

This study, therefore, offers an important platform to Nigerian anti-graft bodies such as the “EFFC,” “Independent Corrupt Practices Commission” (ICPC) and “Code of Conduct Bureau” (CCB). Thus, it perhaps eases the way of combating fraudulent practices in Nigeria.

This paper is original and unique in its form and has value to anti-graft bodies and practitioners in the Nigerian public sector, private sector other African economies and academics.

The private sector has traditionally subsumed the issue of fraud within a general acceptance that there are certain costs relating to any commercial activity and, even if they are expensive to deal with, provided they do not rise at a rate faster than the rise in profits, they are not given a high priority. However, the current slump in profits, a reaction to the politics of the 1980s, and an increasingly competitive marketplace are now encouraging more attention to be paid to costs. In the public sector there is no performance indicator of profit. Much of the focus has been on the cost of the delivery of the goods and services and the value for money that it represents. Public sector fraud is therefore often a matter for media or parliamentary attention. In considering how such awareness develops, the problems of dealing with long‐established evidence of fraud and corruption and the multi‐faceted nature of any reform package, this paper considers the recent developments within the Property Services Agency. This case study offers a salutary warning of the need to tackle fraud and corruption earlier rather than later and also underlines the fact that, whether the fraud and corruption occurs in a public or a private sector organisation, it is management's responsibility to deal with it.

Financial transactions fraud (FTF) and financial statements fraud (FSF) grew exponentially during the past decades coupled with complex and sophisticated technological developments. This study aims to investigate the practitioners’ interpretation of fraud with recurring audit issues in the disclaimer audit opinions (DAOs) reports within the Solomon Islands public sector (SIPS).

The empirical study involves qualitative data analysis. The analysis alongside theoretical developments is informed by the “fraud triangle” theory.

The research results revealed the practitioners’ acknowledgement of FSF, FTF and fraud in the SIPS, as generally prevalent and aligned to some components of the fraud triangle theory. This study is sceptic about the good intentions of the International Public-Sector Accounting Standards –Cash-basis framework and favours the Provincial Government Act 1997 and the Public Finance Management Act 2013 requirements. It further suggests that fraud is positively linked to repeated audited report issues and the executive management when DAOs issues appear repeatedly in annual audit reports.

This study contributes to the literature on fraud and attempts to link the interpretation of fraud with recurring audit issues in the DAOs reports in the SIPS. It views fraud awareness and knowledge from the perspective of the audit practitioner. There is an increasing need to understand how fraud knowledge impacts decision making and the actions of auditors and others, an area that is underdeveloped.