According to the report, the DWP spends about 900m each year on programmes designed to help unemployed people find, and keep, jobs, with both private companies and charities securing contracts. But A4e -- the government's largest provider -- is currently the subject of a police investigation into allegations of fraud relating to its multi-million-pound welfare-to-work activities. In February, entrepreneur Emma Harrison stepped down as the head of A4e and quit her role as the government's "family champion". The DWP launched its own investigation in March, following a new allegation of attempted fraud in connection with A4e's provision of services for the government's Mandatory Work Activity scheme. Ms Hodge said: "Where the government chooses to use private companies to deliver public services it is essential that proper arrangements are in place to prevent and detect fraud and malpractice. "In this instance, the DWP's arrangements for overseeing and inspecting its contractors were so weak that vital evidence on potential fraud and improper practice was not picked up. "The department failed, for example, to obtain from A4e damning internal audit reports produced in 2009 which pointed to instances of potential fraud and malpractice across the country." More : There is "still a cloud" hanging over the firm A4e that had a government contract to help people into work, said the chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee. Her committee has criticised the government's ability to detect fraud among welfare to work providers, and said arrangements for inspecting contractors were so weak that evidence