"We started detecting higher levels of fraud at some of these retailers early in the year - from about late-January, February.
It is also widely acknowledged that there is a high level of fraud involved with the equine identification documents.
Amyas Morse, the comptroller and auditor general, had "qualified his audit opinion" on the department's accounts, which have been qualified every year since 1988-89, due to the high level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure, the National Audit Office NAOO) said.
Even so, many international analysts say a high level of fraud may be impossible to prevent, especially since these elections are for provincial representatives, and even a relatively small number of illicit ballots could shift the outcomes.
It appears that the bank has a very high level of fraud protection in place where the money at risk is its own, but, on the basis of this incident, little or nothing in place to protect money that belongs to its customers.
There was no oversight and a high level of fraud and mistaken activity and creation of products.
High levels of fraud and errors in calculating tax credits have also discredited the system.
What is concerning is that these elections were characterised by high levels of fraud, a trend which will hopefully not be repeated on Sunday.
The Council of Guardians, a conservative supervisory body that reviews election results, said it had found signs of high levels of fraud at almost 90percentt of the polling places in Tehran during a third recount of the first round of voting for Parliament in February.
The letter published in the Observer today from the Disability Benefits Consortium, a group that includes charities Scope, Mencap and Mind, says: "Every time your department reveals statistics on assessments for employment and support allowance, it highlights the people whose applications failed – implying high levels of fraud and unnecessary claims.
