Recovery Act Brings New Importance To What May Be ‘Credible Evidence’ of Fraud

Nov. 16 — The audit community should be aware that “credible evidence,” no matter how small, should be evaluated for potential fraud or abuse in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant programs, as well as in traditional grant programs, according to a member of the Recovery Act Transparency Board.

In the terms and conditions of Recovery Act grants, each grantee or subgrantee is advised to promptly refer to an appropriate inspector general “any credible evidence that a principal, employee, agent, contractor, subgrantee, subcontractor or other person has submitted a false claim under the False Claims Act or has committed a criminal or civil violation of laws pertaining to fraud, conflict of interest, bribery, gratuity or similar misconduct involving those funds.”