It’s common knowledge that the U.S. government wastes millions and at times billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. This is especially true when large expenditures for one reason or another are released quickly, or with subjective and unnecessary planned goal/release dates. When these programs are initiated, proper precautions have often not been taken to guard against either fraud or outright theft.
One example of this lack of discipline took place during the Covid “plandemic.” Unemployment insurance (UI) has always been vulnerable to fraud, but during Covid four new emergency programs were created to handle the large amount of new claims. The increased demand, combined with the desire to respond quickly, opened the door to increased fraud possibilities.
In a new report issued in mid-September by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (I know, it sounds like an oxymoron), it was revealed that the amount of fraud in unemployment insurance programs during the Covid pandemic was likely between $100 billion and $135 billion. This is about 11 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of the total amount of UI benefits paid during the pandemic. Keep in mind that those dollar amounts only represent fraud involving unemployment insurance. The total amount of fraudulent taxpayer money lost is an estimated $200 billion government wide.
The Biden administration’s penchant for spending money has once again placed taxpayer money at risk through fraud and abuse. Now it’s the Department of Energy that is vulnerable. According to the Department of Energy inspector general, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act have created “enormous” challenges at the department. In fact, the inspector general said that these are “historic and unprecedented times” at the department considering the massive spending. The Biden administration more than doubled the budget from $45.3 billion in 2022 to $100 billion this year.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act alone, Democrats directed the department to distribute $336 billion in loans on extremely tight deadlines.
Under one program, the department will need to distribute approximately $32 million per day on average in loans to meet the September 30, 2026, deadline.
The speed of what’s required complicates the department’s ability to oversee the funds. Other risks include insufficient oversight of projects at the transaction level, inadequate internal controls at both the federal and recipient levels, potential conflicts of interest and undue influence, and compliance problems with contract and grant terms and conditions.
In a report to Congress, the inspector general urged Congress to provide it more money to launch preventative audits:“These massive new risks to the taxpayer are occurring in tandem with substantial underfunding of the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Underfunding oversight makes an inherently risky situation much more amenable to fraud, waste, and abuse.”
The full report can be read here.
Some of these programs receiving billions of dollars have not been used in decades, meaning their oversight personnel are simply non-existent. Yet even while the department has been filling these vacancies, it has also been distributing funds. Combine this “hiring blitz” with ongoing vacancies in positions intended to oversee these funds, and taxpayers are still looking at potential disaster.
Besides the risks of new spending, the Energy Department also suffers lapses in its capability to fend off cyber-attacks, the inspector general said in its report.
“The Department continues to experience many challenges related to the implementation of an effective cybersecurity program," the report reads. "The Department’s existing governance structure continues to inhibit its ability to respond to cybersecurity evolving risks and mandates.”
“While some of this work is for fundamental research that is freely published in public, much of it is subject to intellectual property protections and/or national security considerations. These major investments remain a target for foreign governments seeking to illicitly acquire access to U.S.-funded research and technologies. This is particularly troubling given the Department’s integral role in the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons systems, along with other pivotal national security missions.”
While the report did point out that there was an opportunity to provide global leadership with the advancement of AI, it also stated that the focus needed to be narrowed to an enterprise-level strategy.
“With its research capabilities, the Department has a tremendous opportunity to provide leadership covering research principles and guidelines, processes, and technical rigor. As the custodians of the most advanced high-performance supercomputers and massive multimodal data sets stemming from diverse research, the Department and its National Laboratories are well- situated to collaborate with each other and external partners in taking a leading role in developing and deploying AI.”
They may have the capabilities, but the Biden administration’s inept ways of distributing cash for senseless projects make “possibilities” seem more like unfilled potential.
Biden was and is under pressure to enact his asinine programs, and his administration doesn’t have a care in the world about the risks or longterm effects.
It is guaranteed that there will be rampant fraud and theft involved with these programs. The methods to prevent it aren’t in place. The questions are how much of it will be accurately reported and how much of it will be laundered back into the pockets of those who are so anxious to see the money distributed without proper safeguards in place.
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