Last month, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a special report on the DOE’s use of data analytics to reduce the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse within DOE programs. As noted in our prior post (“More Cases and Expanded Data Analytics: A Closer Look at DOJ’s FY 2023 False Claims Act Statistics”), the Department of Justice has successfully used data analytics to identify and develop fraud cases, and the DOE OIG appears poised to adopt a similar approach—despite several implementation challenges.
Citing the significant influx of funds DOE has received through recent spending bills, the OIG report emphasized a need for the DOE to adopt data analytics and data-driven management to conduct oversight—moving away from a “pay and chase” model to a predicative, proactive approach to combatting fraud. However, the OIG found that DOE generally lacks the ability to perform comprehensive and timely analytics given that relevant data is maintained in a multitude of systems across the DOE complex. Without a coordinated approach for data standards, the OIG found that DOE’s ability to monitor contract costs and manage fraud risks is likely to be hampered.
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