A senior civil servant with security vetting was allegedly paid for three full-time jobs by different Government departments – at the same time.
The mandarin who, it is understood, was able to work from home, is said to have duped his bosses to secure the taxpayer-funded roles.
He then worked at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and at least one other department, on two occasions.
This was despite him going through the Government’s vetting procedures, designed to ensure rogue agents do not make it into Whitehall.
An internal audit in 2022-23 discovered the worker had withheld his employment history when applying for the roles.
The National Fraud Initiative (NFI), the Cabinet Office unit which carried out the investigation into the worker, was so alarmed by its findings that police were called in.
The civil servant no longer works for the Government and has been charged with one count of fraud. He has not indicated a plea.
Callum McGoldrick, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: ‘Taxpayers will be absolutely gobsmacked that a civil servant managed to wing their way through multiple full-time jobs at taxpayers’ expense. This isn’t just a case of bureaucratic bungling, it’s outright negligence.’
The mandarin is said to have duped his bosses to secure the taxpayer-funded roles at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (pictured)
He then worked at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) (pictured) and at least one other department, on two occasions
It is understood that the employee was able to work from home (stock image)
According to the report, the worker was investigated two years ago when it emerged he was working for Defra and DHSC, both in a full-time capacity.
It was then established that he held at least one other role in government simultaneously, during two separate time frames.
It emerged he held two different vetting clearances concurrently with different departments, unbeknown to the vettings team or the departments he was working for.
Investigators discovered he withheld his civil service employment history to get a new job each time. He was sacked from all three when his deception was uncovered.
The NFI report looked into remote working practices following the pandemic. It found there was ‘even more opportunity for individuals to commit fraud by gaining employment with several local authorities at the same time but failing to fulfil all of the roles’.
A government spokesman said it had ‘stepped up efforts’ to improve detection processes and prevent public sector fraud.
He said: ‘We have expanded the use of data analytics within the National Fraud Initiative, which helped to identify £510million in fraud and errors across the public sector between 2022 and 2024.’
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer this week unveiled plans to use artificial intelligence to radically digitise the civil service in a bid to save up to £45billion.
The Prime Minister said no person’s ‘substantive time’ should be spent on a task where technology can ‘do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard’.
But Downing Street was forced to deny that it plans to take a ‘chainsaw’ to the state after reports that reform proposals had been dubbed ‘project chainsaw’.
