Creative Scotland reveals six-figure credit card fraud occurred undetected between December 2010 and July 2011
Creative Scotland has confirmed to The Drum that fraudulent transactions of over £108,000 occurred on one GPC card during December 2010 and July 2011.
A Creative Scotland spokesperson admitted “weaknesses” in its systems at the time “led to the fraud going undetected” and confirmed that the spending occurred “when Creative Scotland was first formed and in the process of bringing together two sets of legacy finance systems from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen”.
The spokesperson continued: “The fraud was registered with the Police but no further action pursued at that time. Our new chief executive has discussed the case with our lawyers and recontacted the Police to determine if any further action is required.
“We have regular internal and external auditing and continue to improve the quality of our financial monitoring on an ongoing basis. In addition, our new chief executive, Janet Archer, has actioned a further review of our internal expenses policy which is now underway.”
Archer, who took on the role of chief executive at the publically-funded arts body in July, said one of her first priorities in the role “has been to initiate an audit of all our policies, systems and processes.”
She added: “I am keen to establish a culture where people think carefully about what they spend money on before they spend it and I am working hard with my senior leadership team to ensure we operate efficiently and effectively.”
Reports suggest that items contributing to the £100,000 charged to the card included drinks, tickets, flights and hotels. £75,000 of the total amount taken was recovered and “robust systems are now in place to prevent such fraud happening again”.