Fraud cases may not be investigated because of lack of resources within a council department hit by budget cuts.
One of three dedicated fraud investigators at West Lothian Council is set to be cut due to a lack of funding, a decision which the senior officer said would have a "significant impact"
The team investigate fraud concerns relating to council services, including sickness absences payroll fraud, false claims for blue badge qualification, embezzlement and theft as well as cash theft.
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Between April and December last year they investigated they had almost 70 active investigations to deal with, and identified 12 incidents of fraud or irregularity.
A meeting of West Lothian Council’s Audit Committee heard a report on the council’s Counter Fraud plan for the next financial year.
In his report Stuart Saunders, Senior Counter Fraud and Compliance officer said: “Since 2016/17 the Counter Fraud Team has had a complement of three full time equivalent (fte) staff.
“As a result of budgetary pressures that will come into effect for financial year 2023/24, the complement of the team will be reduced to two FTE. Fraud referrals received from 1 April 2023 onwards will be assessed and prioritised in line with resources.”
And answering questions from the committee after outline plans for the coming year Mr Saunders admitted that the team reduction would have a “significant impact”.
Mr Saunders said: “We have revised our priority assessment procedures so each referral we receive will be prioritised in line with the new resources.
“We take a number of factors into consideration and rank each referral into a high, medium or low priority. The high and medium priorities will be dealt with and the cases worked on. A low priority will not be worked in instantly however we will revisit every four weeks, and review and reassess it every four weeks.
“If it gets to a position after two or three reviews a decision may have to be made where we don’t investigate. Currently we investigate all referrals.”
Mr Saunders told the meeting that the main activity for the coming year will be the ongoing investigation of fraud referrals received either by whistle-blowing process or from concerns raised directly by council services.
“In each case referrals are assessed and prioritised in line with resources and investigated in line with the council anti fraud and corruption policy.”
Explaining the staff reduction in the team a West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “A temporary contract within the Counter Fraud team is coming to an end and it is not intended that this will be filled.”
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