Millions of pounds of public money is being misspent because of “abuse” of green energy schemes, a whistleblower from the energy regulator Ofgem claims. Edd Fyfe, a former counter-fraud officer, alleges big businesses exploited weaknesses in the management of schemes to make huge profits. He claims some firms offered people incentives to redirect money to firms and that Ofgem failed to deal with it. Ofgem says its systems are designed to prevent error or fraud. It added that it takes action in any cases identified and ensures public money is spent properly. Mr Fyfe worked as a manager in compliance and counter-fraud between 2013 and 2017 for Ofgem E-Serve, a branch of the energy regulator which approves and polices green energy subsidies across the UK. He was particularly concerned about the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive, which is intended to encourage householders to use greener alternatives to fossil fuels. Mr Fyfe says that there was “industrialised” subsidy-claiming among some firms. In return for “free” biomass boilers, they induced householders to sign away their generous incentive payments. “They were getting paid many millions and millions of pounds, the return on investment was absolutely huge, but they bled the scheme dry,” he says.
BBC 13th Nov 2018 read more »