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March 24th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
Jason Groves
19:47 EST, 22 March 2012
|
12:46 EST, 23 March 2012
Ministers were under intense pressure to suspend all contracts with beleaguered welfare-to-work firm A4e last night as a leaked internal dossier revealed evidence of widespread fraud and malpractice.
A confidential internal audit report seen by the Daily Mail paints a devastating picture of the firm owned by the Prime Minister’s former ‘back-to-work’ tsar Emma Harrison.
It reveals that auditors found evidence of potential fraud or rule-breaking in 13 out of 16 A4e offices they visited three years ago.
The leaked internal dossier paints a devastating picture of the firm owned by the Prime Minister’s former ‘back-to-work’ tsar Emma Harrison.
In some cases employers said they had never heard of A4e clients to whom they had supposedly given a job. In others, A4e staff were suspected of fabricating evidence in order to claim state payments for finding people work.
The revelations raise serious questions about checks at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which has gone on to hand the firm new contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
They came as it emerged Thames Valley Police had arrested a fifth former A4e employee in connection with an ongoing inquiry into alleged fraud at the firm. The 35-year-old woman was questioned at a Berkshire police station on suspicion of defrauding the taxpayer.
The leaked report warned of a ‘potential systematic failure’ by managers to tackle the problem. It also warned that the company’s record-keeping on anti-fraud checks was ‘minimal’.
Auditors uncovered widespread evidence of malpractice occurring at A4e offices ‘all over the country’. They said that certain practices – such as claiming payments for clients who took a job for only two hours – fell short of fraud but were potentially damaging to the firm’s reputation.
The report said the scale of the rule-breaking represented ‘a potentially large reputational risk for A4e’.
The audit was carried out in July 2009 on a string of welfare-to-work contracts. The DWP appears to have been aware of the existence of the audit at the time but did not bother to investigate after MPs were told by the firm it ‘had not uncovered any major issues’.
Instead, the DWP then went on to appoint A4e as one of five prime contractors on the Government’s flagship £5billion Work Programme to find jobs for the unemployed.
Margaret Hodge, chairman of the powerful Commons public accounts committee, last night urged ministers immediately to suspend all contracts with the company. ‘This appears to be damning evidence of systematic fraud,’ she said.
The A4e audit investigated the work of the company’s 20 star performers operating out of 16 offices.
In order to qualify for full payment, A4e was supposed to find jobs of a minimum 16 hours a week lasting for at least 13 weeks. Documents confirming the jobs were meant to be signed by employers. But in many cases auditors found A4e staff had filled in the forms themselves. In other cases firms that had supposedly given people jobs did not appear to exist.
A4e has always insisted allegations of wrongdoing relate to isolated cases and old contracts, and says it has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to fraud.
An A4e spokesman last night said the audit had resulted in ‘significant enhancements’ in its anti-fraud procedures. The company acknowledged the audit had uncovered ‘a number of areas where procedures may have been lacking’. But it claimed a final report found only five ‘irregular’ cases relating to one former employee.
A spokesman said the DWP was informed and £5,000 was repaid.
The spokesman added: ‘This was reported to the DWP Risk Assurance Division, which confirmed that the action taken by A4e fully met their own audit.’
The company has suffered a tidal wave of bad publicity since the Mail revealed last month that Emma Harrison paid herself an £8.6million dividend last year.
A string of whistleblowers came forward with allegations of fraud and malpractice at the firm – many of them strikingly similar to those uncovered by the 2009 audit.
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I wasted 13 weeks on this course hanging round doing sod all and playing childish games in class to pass time that had nothing to do with work.
Should be shut down
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I’m sure this company featured in a documentary that highlighted their failings in getting people back to work (I think it was Channel 4). There were some dodgy dealings included. It was quite some time ago_about 2 years, I think.
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I hope the police are contacting everyone that A4e claimed had been placed in employment. They need to contact those who were made to attend these ‘courses’ and ask them what went on and how many interviews A4e arranged for them? And how long did the ‘jobs’ last…..more than 2 hours hopefully!
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@- mr. wibbles, wibblesville, wibbleshire, 23/3/2012 09:47Your experience of A4e’s courses is truely shocking! But I have heard other people say the same thing……all they want to do for 13 weeks is get you to ‘work on your CV’ and look through newspaper adds. The unemployed are being cynically used by these ‘agencies’…they are not helped….and any that find jobs would have done so anyway even if not on A4e course. How many unemployed people did A4e actually place in full time long term jobs? My guess is none.
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Emma Harrison has paid herself a fortune from the taxpayer purse. Shame on all of us for allowing bankers, politicians, and job Zsars to condemn ordinary folk to a life of struggle while they rob us blind.
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The owner of this company should have ALL her assets seized and the money from them be returned to the taxpayer.
– Peter, Kent, 23/3/2012 7:30Anyone defrauding the taxpayers on that scale should be jailed…..whether they be benefits claimants or private companies. We also need to look at the calibre of the people supposed to be the ‘government’…..seems they are incompetent fools. (or do they have shares in all these ‘agencies’ themselves?)
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Shaw Trust is another one – which I believe they do not use any more – first thing they want you to do is sign their forms so they get paid!
Maybe the people forced to use these dubious crooks should take their own forms in and tell the ‘advisors’ – sign my forms to say you’ll guarantee to find me permanent work, then I’ll sign yours
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It seems these agencies just want the names and details of unemployed people so that they can use them to make themselves a lot of money (from the taxpayer). And the ever helpful Jobcentres have been handing over the jobseekers, and their details, straight over to these types of agencies. And sorry, but claiming to have ‘got someone into a job’ that lasted 2 HOURS is fraud by anyones standards! How much was paid to the A4e agency for that?
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The part that will never be properly looked into is how many of the ‘genuine’ cases did they really help in finding a job. Once you have signed their forms and so on, they get the bonus no matter who finds the employment. It said in another site that 75% of the claims in the audit will be regarded as not under investigation. How many of them were genuine claims for bonus payments ?
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And still tax payer funded contracts are being handed out by the govt. as they sit on their hands waiting for some decision to be made on alleged fraud….three years as the DM shows is not enough time for alarm bells to ring in parliament regarding this company and some of it’s employees. I thought ALL govt. contracts had to be in the public interest and value for money!!
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