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…
Category Archives: Blog
-
Early COVID-19 Stimulus Fraud Begins to Surface
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Maintaining Confidence in US Elections: A Tough Assignment
While US citizens have always had disagreements about what policies are best, most people have historically trusted and respected the process we use to determine which policies prevail. Unfortunately, that trust has deteriorated in recent years. It has fallen even more in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which will likely still be active as…
-
Covid-19 Having Short- and Long-Term Impacts for Inspectors General
John F. Kennedy famously said that the Chinese word for crisis was composed of two characters, one meaning danger and the other meaning opportunity. The second character, however, has two meanings, and most modern translators think the second character would be better translated as “a changing point”. Either way, it’s a valid metaphor for what…
-
Congressional Meeting with Afghanistan IG “Zoom-Bombed”
This week provided yet another demonstration of just how unprepared the federal government was to deal with the level of remote work that has been required by the COVID-19 outbreak. Congressman Jim Jordan revealed that a Congressionally-run oversight hearing with John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, was “zoom-bombed” three times. It’s not…
