IG offices have matched tens of thousands of federal employees with SBA loans for which they were not eligible. Image: ungvar/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffSen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has asked for a wider investigation into possible fraud by federal employees under pandemic relief programs, urging that in confirmed instances the money should be recouped and the individuals fired.
“There is ample evidence that thousands of federal employees working for various federal agencies may have fraudulently applied for and received payments from these programs,” she wrote to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, an interagency group of inspector general and law enforcement officials.
Her request follows that group’s recent report listing instances of possible fraud or misuse of funds under programs including Economic Injury Disaster Loans and the Paycheck Protection Program.
For example, it said six agency IG offices have matched tens of thousands of federal employees with SBA loans for which they were not eligible; the IG at DHS meanwhile reported that it has found some $2.6 million in potentially fraudulent unemployment insurance claims made in the names of DHS employees.
The report meanwhile cautioned that such activity may be the result of identity theft in many cases. (The PRAC more recently reported the potential of $5.4 billion in fraud in those two programs through use of bogus or stolen Social Security numbers.)
In her letter, though, Ernst cited the prosecutions of employees from several agencies that in some cases already have resulted in convictions. “These misbehaved bureaucrats have also tarnished the reputation of the other dedicated civil servants, many of whom worked long hours in essential jobs during the pandemic,” she wrote.
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