GAO Efforts Related to Fraud, Abuse and Mismanagement in Federal Programs

Efforts by GAO, which began in mid-1976, to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in the Government included the following: (1) a set of procedures to assess the vulnerability of the program in question to see if concerned agencies were aware of the susceptibility of their programs to fraudulent schemes; (2) the comprehensive collection and analysis of information on known incidents of fraud to determine patterns and trends; and (3) an aggressive effort to follow-up on instances of fraud which would involve not only reactions, but active policing to seek out fraudulent schemes. Although some bright spots existed with respect to individual agency's antifraud activities, the overall existence of a serious problem was confirmed. The following topics were also discussed: (1) monetary loss due to, and principal causes of, fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement; (2) actions taken by the Administration and GAO to eliminate fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement; (3) the GAO Fraud Task Force; (4) the complaint hot line; (5) the number of federal employees discharged for activities involving fraud, waste, and abuse; and (6) the reasonableness of the President's estimate of savings achievable through administration actions to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse.