Governments Crack Down on Fraud
A global trend in public sector accountability is accelerating as the UK and South Korea launch major anti-fraud initiatives. The UK government is targeting billions in public sector fraud, including research payments. Meanwhile, Korea is pioneering mandatory data sharing between ministries to fight policy fund fraud, ending traditional data silos.
The UK's Public Sector Fraud Authority has delivered £7.53 billion in savings in the last financial year by using data-matching tools like the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). This system cross-references records across the public sector, successfully identifying fraudulent housing applications, wrongful pension payments, and false claims for single-person council tax discounts. To build on this, the UK government is establishing a new Public Authorities Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Service by 2026-27. This agency will recruit highly skilled investigators specifically to recover losses from fraud against the public sector, with a particular focus on the almost £400 million in savings already delivered from tackling COVID-related fraud. South Korea's "Policy Fund Management 2-Act" directly addresses a key structural failure in public funding. The legislation empowers the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to request tax and criminal records from the National Tax Service and Ministry of Justice, a response to incidents where funding was given to founders who had
