A4e 'scandal' prompts scrutiny call She told The Sunday Telegraph: "A4e is one of a number of companies receiving its only income from the public sector, but we can't follow the public tax pound. It's public money paying for a public service commissioned by the Government. Why would you want to hide anything? In a PAC meeting last week, Ms Hillier asked Robert Devereux, the DWP permanent secretary, whether the likes of A4e should be subject to greater scrutiny. He replied: "I think that's a perfectly reasonable challenge. I do think it matters, whether or not evidence has been found, that this company [A4e] is fraudulent. To date, all the evidence I have found is that it is not fraudulent. He added providers were now paid "by results," meaning taxpayers' money was well spent. But Ms Hillier told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's a bit like saying, if the horse bolts, then we'll close the door afterwards - a good organisation would have nothing to hide." Last week, A4e rejected the whistle-blower's allegations over systemic fraud. "None of these allegations stand up," it said. Chris Grayling, Employment Minister, said: "It's a bit rich for the previous administration to start talking about transparency of providers as they did nothing about this when they were in charge - all the A4e allegations relate to contracts procured by the previous government." He added: "We assume, that given their new focus on transparency, the previous government will now support our call for the advice received on fraud in the welfare to work industry from when they were in charge to be published."