Expenditure over £25,000
In accordance with the government’s commitment to greater transparency, the trust is required to publish online expenditure over £25,000.
Expenditure, for the purposes of this exercise, is all individual invoices, grant payments, expense payments or other such transactions that are over £25,000. Certain expenditure, such as that related to the trust’s payroll and money administered on behalf of clients, is excluded from the scope of these disclosures.
The trust will publish expenditure over £25,000 on a monthly basis, as stipulated by HM Treasury.
HM Government website
Further information regarding the expenditure of government departments can be found on the HM Government website here.
Bribery and fraud
The Bribery Act 2010 was introduced to make it easier to tackle the issue of bribery which is a damaging practice. Bribery can be defined as ‘giving someone a financial or other advantage to encourage them to perform their duties improperly or reward them for having done so’.
To limit our exposure to bribery we have in place a Local Counter Fraud Policy, a Standards of Business Conduct Policy and Managing Conflicts of Interest Policy. These apply to all staff and to individuals and organisations who act on behalf of North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust.
We also employ a local counter fraud specialist who will investigate, as appropriate, any allegations of fraud, bribery or corruption.
The success of our anti-bribery approach depends on our staff playing their part in helping to detect and eradicate bribery. Therefore, we encourage staff, service users and others associated with North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust to report any suspicions of bribery and we will rigorously investigate any allegations.
In addition, we hold a register of interest for directors, staff, and governors and ask staff not to accept gifts or hospitality that will compromise them or the Trust. The Board of Directors carries out its business in an open and transparent way.
We are committed to the prevention of bribery as well as to combating fraud and expect the organisations we work with to do the same. Doing business in this way enables us to reassure our patients, members and stakeholders that public funds are properly safeguarded.
If you have any concerns or suspicions of fraud or bribery we need to know about, the trust’s counter-fraud specialist can be contacted in confidence:
Telephone: 07721 488602
Email: sarah.bailey@miaa.nhs.uk
