The British Audit Office today points to the “high level” of fraud in the emergency loan program, which is estimated at 9 4.9 billion by the government, deeming “insufficient” the government measures taken to recover part of them.
The report covers a program announced in late April 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic to give small and medium-sized enterprises 100% guaranteed state-owned bank loans, limited to .000 50,000 or 25% of annual turnover and a repayment period of up to ten years.
The government estimated the level of fraud at the end of November at 4 4.9 billion, out of a total of more than 46 46 billion in guaranteed loans granted through this emergency program. “The government has given priority to the speed of payment over almost all other aspects” in granting loans, which has resulted in “high levels of estimated fraud,” the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report.
Anti-fraud measures have been “implemented too late” to be effective, and the government now has to “focus on locating and recovering loans” of those that have been unduly secured, the NAO notes.
The British Audit Office also called on the government to do more to recover the unsecured loans, deeming it “insufficient” to recover “at least 6 6 million” from those loans and the additional 32 32 million budget earmarked for fraud.
Source: AMPE
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Source From: Capital
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