The pandemic has created more problems than small businesses can manage. Many of them are focused on the most imminent challenges – helping employees work remotely and getting their product or service in front of a worried consumer. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of their distraction and their newfound love of web-based communication to gain access…
Posts by admin
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Keeping Sensitive Agency Data Secure Will Only Get More Difficult
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Pandemic Stimulus Anti-Fraud Mission Bolsters Federal OIG Teamwork
There are 73 Federal Inspectors General, each working within their own agency to reduce waste and uncover fraud. Offices do work together as members of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and on peer reviews, and they do refer cases to each other when appropriate, but the majority of their focus…
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Officials Still Critical of Federal Agency Return-To-Work Plans
Across the country, people have spent the past six months weighing their obligations to others against the risk of infection. In the early days of the pandemic, healthcare workers, grocery store employees and take-out food preparers risked face-to-face interaction with thousands of people to keep the country healthy and fed. Most others reduced face-to-face interaction…
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Early COVID-19 Stimulus Fraud Begins to Surface
It’s been more than six months since the pandemic hit the United States, and nearly six months since the CARES Act became law. In that short amount of time, around $2 trillion of stimulus money has been distributed. That’s a fortunate fact for millions of people, as well as their employers, who needed this money…
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A Permanent Inspector General Bolsters Agency Effectiveness
Like everyone else, Inspectors General retire. When they do, they leave their agencies in the capable hands of an Acting Inspector General until a permanent one can be appointed or confirmed. On top of their management experience, Acting IGs typically have decades of experience in investigations, audits or both. They’re fully capable of leading an…
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Three Things Your Case Management System Needs in the Work-from-Home Era
It’s been more than four months since COVID-19 struck throughout the United States. Since then, nearly everyone’s work lives and personal lives have changed. Plans were delayed, then postponed. States have shut down, opened, and shut down again. As much as we all want to get back to normal, the reality is that we probably…
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Will COVID-19 Lead to Stronger Oversight for Nursing Homes?
The past few months have been catastrophic for many, many people. You don’t need to look further than the ever-increasing death rates, however, to see that the elderly have been impacted the hardest. Even among the elderly there are outliers; COVID-19 statistics are shockingly bad. While only 0.4% of US residents live in nursing…
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COVID-19 Didn’t Cause the Federal IT Problem
When federal employees quickly transitioned to working from home en masse in March, there were significant challenges. Many agencies had no agency-wide videoconferencing software. The Air Force only had enough VPN licenses for one-third of its employees. Even Congress was Zoom-bombed in the early-days of the crisis. The transition has gone far better than many…
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When “Financial Misuse” Hurts the Recipient
Misuse of taxpayer funds happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the government doesn’t achieve a goal in the most efficient way. Sometimes, efforts are duplicated, or work is lost and has to be performed again. Identifying misuse of funds, and preventing future misuse of funds, is one of the most important jobs of Inspectors…
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Will IGs Investigate COVID-19 Outbreaks?
While states have started to relax private business restrictions initially put in place due to Coronavirus, most state and federal employees continue to work remotely. This isn’t going to continue indefinitely, however. Many federal agencies have already issued guidance on how to bring employees back to the office, and employees who have been on paid…
