A audit carried out into procurement spending by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) found that suppliers had been overpaid to the tune of £100 million.

The spend recovery audit by officials found that overpayment of £100 million occurred throughout last financial year. This level of overspend was generated from duplicate orders and overpayments for common goods and services.

The revelation comes as the government undertakes recovery audits in all departments.

“Every government promises a crackdown on fraud and error, but we are delivering, with £6.5 billion saved last year alone” said Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

The minister added that the public sector was moving for with improved communications to “enable different parts of government to share data about fraudsters and work as one to catch them. This will ensure we further reduce the shocking losses to fraud and error much faster.”

The development of big data and improved analytics processes have allowed the public sector to improve overspend detection rates.

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