Defense Procurement Fraud

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's Defense Procurement Fraud Unit's operations, specifically the: (1) number of cases; (2) types of fraud involved; (3) extent of top-100-defense-contractor involvement; (4) estimated dollar losses; and (5) status of the cases it received.

GAO found that: (1) the Unit received 704 cases between October 1982 and December 1985; (2) most of the cases involved cost or labor mischarging, defective pricing, product substitution or nonconformance products, and conflict of interest; and (3) 156 of the 486 cases received for investigative advice or prosecutorial decisions involved top-100 defense contractors or their subsidiaries. GAO also found that, as of July 1986: (1) 13 percent of the cases received for action resulted in one or more criminal, civil, or administrative actions against the individual or company involved; (2) 29 percent of the 160 cases received for information purposes resulted in one or more criminal, civil, or administrative actions; (3) none of the remaining 58 cases the Unit received resulted in criminal fines, suspensions, or debarments; and (4) 3 of the 58 cases resulted in civil fines or recoveries.