Press Release - The Assets Recovery Agency
21 February 2007
The Assets Recovery Agency was set up without a feasibility
study and has failed to achieve its targets for the recovery of
criminal assets and for becoming self financing by 2005-06. To date
the Agency has spent £65 million and recovered assets worth £23
million. Although the Agency now expects to become self-financing
by 2009-10, on current performance it is in danger of missing that
target too.
A report published today by the National Audit Office found that
half of all cases the Agency took on in 2003-04 were still ongoing
by August 2006; and it has recovered assets in just 52 cases.
The data the Agency collects and uses on cases is incomplete and
held across several disparate databases. As a result, the Agency
could not conclusively say how many cases had been referred to it.
Case management is informal, with no targets for the completion of
tasks; and there is no time recording in place to assess the staff
resources spent on each case. However, the Agency has met its
target for disrupting criminality.
The Agency was created in February 2003 to take the profit out
of crime by removing property obtained by criminal activity. It
aims to put an end to the champagne lifestyle of certain criminals
– as well as tackling the smaller fish - and to reduce the money
available for further criminal activity.
Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Agency is also
responsible for promoting financial investigation through the
training, accreditation and monitoring of Financial
Investigators [Notes for Editors 1] both inside and outside the
Agency. The National Audit Office found that there was uncertainty
about the number and accredited status of the Financial
Investigators it has trained.
Of those recorded as trained Financial Investigators, 90 per
cent had not completed their Continuous Professional Development
(CPD) which they need to do to retain their accreditation. The
Agency has exceeded targets in delivering training for staff, and
those who attended the courses were positive about them. However,
today’s report raises concerns about the targeting of such courses
as, once the Agency has completed its training role, 30 per cent of
Financial Investigators retire or move on after finishing their
training.
In a staff survey conducted in 2006, half of respondents were
dissatisfied with their career opportunities at the Agency and
between September 2005 and September 2006 a quarter of the staff
who had worked for the Agency had left. In some specialist
disciplines this figure was higher: in the same year, almost 50 per
cent of legal staff and 40 per cent of training and development
staff had left.
Last month, the Home Office announced that the casework of the
Assets Recovery Agency is to transfer to the Serious Organised
Crime Agency, and the training to the National Policing Improvement
Agency. The remit will remain unchanged and investigations will
continue.
Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said
today:
“On current performance, there is a risk that the work
of the Assets Recovery Agency will not be self-financing by
2009-10. As a matter of urgency, the Agency must develop robust
management information, incorporating specific targets for the
completion of the cases it investigates and introduce
time-recording to assess the resources devoted to
them.
“The Agency has to do more to ensure it fulfils its
statutory role of monitoring the accreditation of Financial
Investigators both inside and outside the Agency. It must follow up
on individuals who have not complied with professional development
requirements and, where necessary, remove the accreditation of
people who don’t make the grade.”
Notes for Editors:
- Financial Investigators work for a number of different
organisations, including the police forces, HM Revenue and Customs
and the Agency. They seek to identify criminal assets that can be
recovered.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 11/07
All enquiries to Mark Anderson, NAO Press Office:
Tel: 020 7798 7558
Mobile: 07796 937 119