HEALTH SERVICE FRAUD WAS PREVENTABLE
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Department: Northern Ireland AssemblyPublished: 2009-04-16 12:30:35A major health service fraud, committed by the Brangam and Bagnall firm of solicitors, could have been prevented had the most basic of financial monitoring been carried out. That’s the message from a report, published today, by the Public Accounts Committee. Commenting on the report, Mr Paul Maskey MLA, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee said, “From our investigations, it was evident that the Health Bodies had dispensed with even the most basic of payment checks because they were working with a professional, a professional who had previously been one of their colleagues.” The Committee found that since Mr Brangam had previously been a senior manager in the Central Services Agency (CSA), he had inside knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the controls system, which enabled him to target his frauds with maximum precision and minimum risk of detection. Mr Maskey continued, “The Committee was appalled at how Mr Brangam’s departure from CSA had been handled. For the six-month period between expressing his intention to leave and actually leaving, Mr Brangam was the Director of Legal Services which was carrying out a market testing of legal services, while simultaneously establishing his own practice to provide those services to the health sector.” “To make matters worse, when the fraud was identified, the Committee was not satisfied that the Department’s investigative work was sufficiently timely, wide-ranging or penetrative.” The Committee was also disappointed to learn that, despite two complaints being made against Mr Brangam and his practice, the Law Society’s regular inspections of BB & Co identified no problems other than a minor issue in 2001. Mr Maskey concluded, “This is one of the worst examples of procurement practice that this Committee has ever seen. There were clear conflicts of interest from the outset, fundamental checks in the payment process were dispensed with and the select list for legal services remained in place for 12 years, preventing other firms from entering the market. Clearly such poor practice left the public service more vulnerable to abuse by unscrupulous individuals than it should have been. We can only hope that lessons will be learned from this debacle and that such poor practice will not come before this Committee again.” This government news item was published on the Northern Ireland Assembly website on the 16 April 2009. To read the full story/press release, please click on the button below (opens in an embedded window):
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