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The requirement

Bart’s Health NHS Trust sought an Accounts Payable Review to identify and recover overpayments that had escaped its own robust internal systems and processes. The Trust processes a high volume of supplier invoices and conducts self-checks, regularly undertaking reviews with the National Fraud Initiative (NFI).

The Trust understands that overpayments are not always recognised or voluntarily declared by suppliers and that funds can be lost permanently if left unclaimed or if the supplier goes into liquidation. The Accounts Payable Review is a risk-free mechanism to identify and recover any overpayments that have been missed.

An in-depth and thorough analysis of accounts payable transactions and payments is often time- consuming and resource intensive to conduct in-house. For this reason many organisations choose to outsource projects such as these to independent specialist providers.

The solution

Bart’s Health NHS Trust used Lot 2 of the CCS Spend Analysis & Recovery Services framework agreement to award their contract to Rockford Associates Limited.

Rockford first extracted 3 years of transaction data from the Trust’s accounts payable system. The process was easy and straightforward and no scripting or software development was required. The Trust data was quickly uploaded to Rockford’s secure share file site and Rockford used their own bespoke data mining software to conduct the initial analysis.

A senior Recovery Auditor was sent to the Trust to deliver a full end-to-end review. With access to mail, systems and scanning in place the Auditor identified, verified and recovered a number of overpayments. The review consisted of a statement review together with a detailed analysis of Rockford’s bespoke software-generated reports. The service was delivered both on-site and remotely with minimum disruption to the Trust’s Accounts Payable and Finance Teams.

The Trust had previously used the services of Rockford in 2013 and it was further reassured in 2019 that it could easily engage Rockford’s specialist NHS AP Recovery Services via the Spend Analysis and Recovery Services (SARS 2) Framework Agreement.

The results

The Trust’s approach to Financial Transparency yielded positive results. Rockford Associates analysed over 645,000 past transactions from the Trust’s Oracle Finance System. The review identified, verified and recovered 82 exceptions delivering a six-figure sum which translates into more investment in patient care and services.

The Trust welcomed Rockford’s independent validation and positive reassurance that 99.99% of transactions were processed correctly by invoice value and 99.98% by invoice volume.

Rockford further identified 11,847 inactive suppliers so assisting the Trust to accurately maintain an accurate Supplier Master File database and provided a detailed Findings and Recommendations Report to help prevent future overpayments.

“Bart’s NHS Trust is committed to ensure high standards of corporate governance and personal behaviour are maintained in the conduct of the business of the Trust. A main selling point of the service was that Rockford did the legwork in getting the cash physically back for us. That was a valuable resource to us. The engagement provided an independent reassurance and positive validation that our systems and processes are working well. The review was delivered promptly and efficiently with minimum disruption to day-to-day business productivity. We will happily recommend Rockford’s Accounts Payable review to any NHS Trust or other body considering a review” – Jasmine Lee – Associate Director Financial Services, Bart’s NHS Trust

“The outcome with Bart’s NHS Trust is rewarding for both parties. Our relationship has spanned a decade or more and has always proved mutually beneficial. The Trust’s professional approach to financial transparency and the behaviours supporting that process has resulted in significant cash recoveries via Rockford’s specialist NHS Accounts Payable Recovery Review” – Ray Dorney – Director, Rockford Associates Limited

Get involved

The CCS SARS2 framework agreement is available for any publicly funded organisation to use. If you would like to find out how you could benefit from using this agreement, or if you would like to see more case studies of how our suppliers have helped other public sector organisations, please contact CCS at info@crowncommercial.gov.uk.

Find more information about the CCS SARS2 framework agreement.