Fraud in the Federal Government: Challenges Determining the Extent of Federal Fraud

Format: Online Federal Government Publication (Innovative Product Line)

Role: Senior Analyst-in-Charge; Co-Author; Product Line Developer

Genre: Federal / Adult Education / Public Policy

Publisher: United States Government Accountability Office

Release Date: January 2023

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106110

ABOUT THE PUBLICATION

Congress has long been interested in how much fraud exists across the federal government. Reliably determining the extent of fraud – both frequency and impacts – in all federal programs could help Congress and agency officials prioritize fraud prevention and detection resources. In light of this interest, we examined select data on federal fraud and three key reasons that make determining the total extent of fraud especially challenging: varying definitions, imperfect detection and reporting, and insufficient data.

This product has been distributed to the United States Congress and utilized for their purposes. It is also available online here for public use. GAOverviews are an innovative product line that reimagined the manner in which GAO disseminated information to Congress based on requests for more streamlined, visual materials that could be used to quickly brief Congresspersons, prepare for testimonies, and quickly understand a new topic. Mobile phone accessibility and readability were prioritized in the design of this product line to meet the needs of Hill staff.