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Reporting concerns regarding fraud and corruption for Biodiversity Challenge Funds projects

All Biodiversity Challenge Funds (including Darwin Initiative, Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Funds, and Darwin Plus) projects are required to notify us of all instances of suspected or actual fraud, bribery and corruption.

What do we mean by reporting concerns for fraud and corruption?

Reporting concerns for fraud and corruption is the act of reporting illegal or unethical practices, particularly financial misconduct. This often involves individuals coming forward with information about fraudulent activities.

What are the requirements for reporting concerns for all Biodiversity Challenge Funds (BCFs) projects?

All project partners should be doing counter fraud assessments and implementing controls and mitigations and have the appropriate detective controls in place. Projects are required to maintain full documentation and audit trails for all Defra money including invoices and receipts. This includes money spent by the Lead Organisation as well as all project partners.

Projects should also check that downstream partners are aware of their responsibilities in managing Defra funds and have the appropriate reporting mechanisms throughout the delivery chain.

All cases of fraud or theft (whether proven or suspected) relating to funded activities must be notified to the fund as soon as they are detected. You should assess credibility based on the source of the allegation, the content, and the level of detail or evidence provided. When reporting, you should include on what steps are being taken to investigate the irregularity, and the fund manager should be kept informed on this progress.

See BCFs Terms & Conditions for more information.

Reporting other kinds of concerns

You can find other key contacts for reporting other issues on your project on the “Report Concerns” page of the website here: https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/report-concerns/