National Procurement Fraud Task Force Publishes Guidelines on Grant Fraud

In February 2009, the National Procurement Fraud Task Force (NPFTF) Grant Fraud Committee (GFC) published a white paper, “A Guide to Grant Oversight and Best Practices for Combating Grant Fraud” (”Guide”).  This Guide highlighted the work of the NPFTF and the GFC and described the steps the federal government has recently taken to combat grant fraud.  The NPFTF, which was created in 2006, created the GFC in the belief that the unique nature of grant fraud warranted task force committee focus.  The GFC pursues the NPFTF’s general objectives with respect to grant fraud and, more specifically, (1) examines ways to enhance information sharing related to grant fraud; (2) coordinates agency efforts to provide training to auditors, investigators, and prosecutors on grant fraud; and (3) conducts outreach to agency program managers and grantees to coordinate prevention, detection and investigation.  The GFC is chaired by Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Glenn Fine.

The Guide provides recommendations for enhanced certifications, increased training, improved communications with grant recipients, increased information sharing concerning potential fraud and rigorous oversight of grant dollars.  Of particular note is the GFC’s discussion of training government agencies to spot grant fraud.  For example, according to the GFC, the Department of Transportation OIG regularly provides information to state transportation departments about types of grant fraud and also sponsors a biennial National Transportation Fraud Prevention Conference.  In another highlighted example, the GFC and the Training Committee of the NPFTF have developed a course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) that focuses specifically on grant fraud and its investigation.  FLETC also offered a special grant fraud course specifically for the Homeland Security OIG.

The GFC also highlights the extent to which grant oversight agencies’ OIGs, in particular, have improved information sharing among relevant agencies.  For example, the Department of Education OIG meets weekly with an intra-agency group, known as the “Risk Management Team,” that monitors potentially high-risk grantees for compliance.  Likewise, the DOJ OIG Audit and Investigations divisions have substantially increased coordination on DOJ grants by, among other things, developing a list of grant fraud indicators based on past cases.

See the Guide here.