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The National Procurement Fraud Task Force was created on October 10, 2006, to promote the prevention, early detection and prosecution of procurement fraud.
In announcing the formation of the Task Force, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty explained, "Procurement fraud cheats American taxpayers and harms the government's efforts to obtain the goods and services needed for its mission. At a time of heightened concern for our nation's security, every tax dollar is precious."
The Task Force is chaired by the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, and includes the FBI, the Department of Justice Inspector General and other federal Inspectors General, defense investigative agencies, federal prosecutors from United States Attorneys offices across the country, as well as the Criminal, Civil, Antitrust and Tax Divisions of the Department of Justice. The Task Force’s emphasis will be to increase civil and criminal enforcement where it can have the greatest effect, including defective pricing, product substitution, misuse of classified and procurement sensitive information, false claims, grant fraud, labor mischarging, fraud involving foreign military sales, ethics and conflict of interest violations, and public corruption associated with procurement fraud. The Task Force also will focus on maximizing information sharing and take significant leadership in addressing issues such as grant fraud, relations with the private sector, training and legislation. As former Assistant Attorney General Fisher has stated, “The public needs to have faith in the integrity of the procurement system and know that anyone who is cheating the system will be held accountable.” |
