Payment Integrity & Fraud Symposium

This session spoke about the "Red Flags of Infrastructure Fraud". The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides over $1.2 trillion in federal spending over the next five years mostly in grants and contracts to states and local governments for public transit, railways, power grids, electric vehicles and buses, ferries, airports, waterways, climate change, broadband internet, environmental protection, drinking water, and transformation safety. This program of fast-moving money, with untested controls, provides vast opportunities for fraud and waste. Auditors, investigators, and grants and contract managers at all levels of government will need to be especially vigilant for possible schemes and red flag indicators of fraud that robs the public of funds.

This event was held at GSA and opened to both remote and in-person participants. This engaging session included:

• Direct in-person access to “Innovation Hall” experts who shared insights about the latest success stories in advancing fraud detection and prevention.
• Strategic lessons learned from government-wide efforts to advance payment integrity.
• An inside scoop on the CFO Council “Anti Fraud Playbook”.
• Leveraging Blockchain to help Reduce/Eliminate Improper Payment Fraud Risks: A session presented by NSF, NARA, and MITRE.
• Key updates from the highly successful “CFOC Payment Integrity Working Group” about their journey in building a Government-wide Fraud Risk Catalog.
• Ample opportunities for community networking.

In FY23, 52 federal agencies made approximately 740,566 awards totaling $1.1 T in public funding.  Fraud and other compliance risks exist in every single one of these awards. This session framed the problem, provided a big picture view of the key risks, highlighted the strategic findings of recent oversight reports, and offered ideas on how we might better mitigate these problems to help ensure every grant dollar is used wisely. 

Due to overwhelming popularity, we hosted an encore of the Artificial Intelligence focused session. This session included:

• Cross-Government Insights: A powerful overview of the state of the Federal AI community and emerging fraud threat vectors.
• Hands-on Expertise: As the in-depth part of this session, and part of our effort to bring best practices to the fore, many heard from SSA about the types of AI fraud they’re seeing and descriptions of the tools (some AI-based) they’re using to fight fraud. They also demonstrated how easy it is for malicious actors to acquire and use AI tools to perpetrate fraud.
• YOUR Experiences!: Through an interactive part of the session, many were asked to share what they and their agencies have experienced and are doing to fight AI fraud.

Artificial Intelligence was brought to the center of our community's focus! During this session many heard about:

• Cross-Government Insights: A powerful overview of the state of the Federal AI community and emerging fraud threat vectors.
• Hands-on Expertise: As the in-depth part of this session, and part of our effort to bring best practices to the fore, many heard from SSA about the types of AI fraud they have seen and descriptions of the tools (some AI-based) they’re using to fight fraud. They also demonstrated how easy it is for malicious actors to acquire and use AI tools to perpetrate fraud.
• YOUR Experiences!: Through an interactive part of the session, many were asked to share what them and their agencies have experienced and are doing to fight AI fraud.

Federal payment integrity, and fraud risk management professionals were formally invited to participate in this Symposium event which was held in hybrid format at the GSA facility.

Many heard from senior government officials who discussed substantive fraud and payment integrity breakthroughs happening across the government. They also participated in discussions to learn about:

• Treasury's Account Verification Services, as well as heard about how agencies have leveraged these services
• The five tenets of fraud and what to do with audits when they inevitably occur
• Best practices in reducing fraud.

The virtual symposium held on June 22 from 11 to 1 PM discussed the following topics:

• Using GAO's Antifraud Resources and Reports to Understand and Combat Public Sector Fraud: This presentation will provide an overview of GAO's innovative resources for combatting fraud and recent pandemic fraud reports.
• Treasury's Payment Integrity Services for Oversight: Hear how Agency Inspectors General and the broader oversight community can leverage Treasury's Payment Integrity Services including case studies.
• Promoting Agency Program and Office of the Inspector General Collaboration: Hear about SSA's National Anti-Fraud Committee's promising practices such as the annual summit and how it is an effective tool to enhance agency-IG cooperation consistent with OMB Memo M-22-04.

This lunchtime virtual session covered several interesting and engaging topics, including:

• Delivering Payment Integrity to Prevent Fraud and Improper Payments
• Fraud Risk Framework and Playbook
• A Whole Government Oversight Response

A copy of the presentation slides can be found here.

The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council Innovation Committee accelerates the adoption of new practices, processes, and technologies in the U.S. Government. This in-person/hybrid symposium session, sponsored by the Innovation Committee, included the following topics:

• Welcome and Opening Remarks by the Innovation Committee Chairs, and several other senior agency officials.
• Fraud Motives, Means and Measures: A panel discussion led by the FAA CIO, and supported by panelists from IRS, SSA, FAA, and NSF.
• Combating Fraud, Mitigating Risk: A panel discussion led by the CEO of Dots & Bridges with representatives from Gartner, TRM Labs, Carnegie Mellon University, and MITRE.
• Leveraging Blockchain to help Reduce/Eliminate Improper Payment Fraud Risks: A session presented by NSF, NARA, and MITRE.
• Integrated Approach to Fraud Detection in Healthcare: a Panel discussion led by the Deputy CIO of the Dept of Education, and supported by panelists from DEA, HHS, CMS, and DOI.
• Agency Spotlights with representation by GSA Login.gov, DHS, and HRSA.