A Pivotal Play

Government Agencies Share Success Strategies for Reducing Fraud, Improper Payments

Why is this a Pivotal Play?
In March, FedInsider's "Unmasking Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: Tools, Techniques, and Technology" event gathered numerous government agencies and officials to share their achievements in leveraging technology to eliminate improper payments and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.

Industry experts and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) gathered to honor and share recent success stories. They explored how technology is giving them an edge in slashing improper payments by $50 billion by the end of 2012, a goal set by President Obama.

Within the HHS OIG, the Office of Audit Services successfully identified waste and fraud through data analysis and data mining. Other victories came from USDA, which utilized a nationwide database, the Electronic Disqualified Recipient System, to ensure benefits were not being distributed erroneously. Smart technology like continuous transaction monitoring has also helped to prevent improper payments, fraud, and waste.

Proving that billions of tax dollars can be saved in just a matter of months, according to PaymentAccuracy.gov, the DoD has prevented more than $700 million in improper payments over the past two years through the deployment of business activity monitoring tools.

Source: Federal Computer Week and Payment Accuracy