More than £5 million of pensions, housing benefit and rates fraud and overpayments have been detected in Northern Ireland.
The waste was detected as part of the national fraud initiative which uses techniques for matching information from different Government bodies.
Comptroller and auditor general Kieran Donnelly said it was essential the Government used all preventative means possible.
Between April 1st, 2012, and March 31st this year, the value of payments challenged was worth £5.5 million, including more than £3.3 million of pensions fraud and overpayment; £1.6 million of housing benefit fraud and overpayment and over £350,000 of rates fraud and overpayment
The total included incorrect payments stopped and an estimate of future savings achieved by no longer making the payments.
Part of the matching process involved checking blue badge and public transport pass records with the deaths register. There were more than 5,000 matches between blue badge holder records and deaths. This usually means the badges were not returned after the deaths of holders and could potentially be used fraudulently, the audit office said.
There were almost 10,000 matches between concessionary travel pass holder records and deaths.
More than 100 public bodies took part in the third running of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) in Northern Ireland.
The audit office said: “There is still evidence of overinvestigation by some participating bodies.
“Organisations should target investigations on known fraud risks and should not continue to investigate matches when no fraud or error is being found.” – (PA)