Letter: Time to fund our fraud office
[Re: UK is losing fight against fraud as anti-corruption watchdogs are ‘under-resourced’, Jan 25]
This week’s report from Spotlight on Corruption correctly highlights the need for the Serious Fraud Office to be properly funded if we are going to see action in the fight against corruption.
The Serious Fraud office was established with the primary aim of investigating and prosecuting serious cases of complex fraud and corruption.
However, it’s clear the Serious Fraud office has since lost its way, having repeatedly failed to prosecute individuals and companies for wrongdoing.
In fact, its recent success in negotiating deferred prosecution agreements suggests that it is a money collecting organisation, as opposed to a prosecutorial agency.
For this to change, the Serious Fraud office needs more funding so that it can both attract and retain top class legal and investigative talent that is capable of prosecuting wrongdoing.
Currently, funding is invested in areas that aren’t adding to its core functions, for example the recent hire of a “Head of Change” and other marginal functions.
Beyond this, it needs a leader who has deep knowledge of prosecuting in the UK, so that the errors of the past can be forgotten, and not repeated once again.
Jonathan Pickworth