The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust recovers £870,000 of duplicate supplier payments
Overview
A group of Manchester NHS Trusts engaged Liberata to conduct an Accounts Payable recovery audit through the Crown Commercial Service’s Debt Resolution Service Framework (RM6226). The Trusts, including the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, employ around 48,000 staff and serve 1.75 million people in the North West of England.
The background
With combined annual supplier spend exceeding £3.8 billion, increased demand for services and significant financial pressures, the Trusts needed to identify and recover historical overpayments and unclaimed credits.
Their objective was clear: recover critical funds, improve financial resilience and strengthen financial controls without disrupting services.
The solution
The NHS Trusts needed a reliable partner who were capable of managing high transaction volumes and using enhanced data matching methods to identify payment anomalies.
They chose Liberata because we have supplied Finance & Accounting services to public sector organisations for 50 years, and our Duplicate Payment Recovery Service has a proven, robust and intelligent approach to recovering lost funds. This end-to-end service is fully managed and ensures minimal disruption to the customer’s daily operations.
For the project’s delivery, we deployed our team of UK-based specialists, who used our state-of-the-art analytics and automated reconciliation software to undertake the audit. Throughout the term of the project, our team will analyse over 3 million invoice records, covering a five-year period, to identify, validate, and recover monies from suppliers.
Measurable success
The team successfully investigated significant volumes of invoice data from multiple accounting systems, as well as contacting nearly 12,000 suppliers for statements.
The audit highlighted how improvements could be made by undertaking more regular and comprehensive supplier statement reconciliations. Our automated supplier statement reconciliation tool reduces these tasks from hours to minutes.
To provide future resilience, we made recommendations to change processes and controls for certain payment types to reduce the risk of further duplicate payments being made.
Through our proprietary data analytics system, which utilises multiple algorithms and an AI model, we have enabled deeper and more precise insights than the Government’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercise, with over £870,000 recovered by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.
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Delivering for our customers
“My experience of using Liberata’s Duplicate Payment Recovery Service has been very positive. Their team has brought expertise, professionalism and technology to the process, uncovering value beyond standard tools.”
Lucy Bailey
Procurement Manager, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
Key Results
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£870,000 recovered in previously undetected duplicate payments
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No operational disruption or additional workload for NHS finance team
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Advanced AI analytics uncovering errors beyond standard NFI checks
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Ongoing process improvements to prevent future losses
Ready to recover your duplicate payments?
Our Accounts Payable experts can walk you through our Duplicate Payment Recovery Service and explain how it can be applied to your specific circumstances.
Within a short space of time, you will be recovering your missing funds and improving your cash flow.
Complete the form with your details, and one of our team will be in touch.
