The board, operating out of a war-room-style facility called the Recovery Operations Center near the White House, is charged with early detection of fraud within the $814 billion stimulus, which recently entered its second anniversary.
Auditors use tools such as government databases, public records and Facebook pages to track links between scam-artists, and they use predictive modeling to determine where in the country they should focus their resources. The high-tech approach is intended to prevent fraud before it happens, so the government doesn't lose out on money, the newspaper reports.
Leaders have several victories by the board. It caught a company that had been awarded $7 million in contracts despite being prohibited from receiving federal awards. The agency was able to cancel the contracts. In another case, the board found a stimulus award given to a company that declared bankruptcy just days later. It was able to stop a $50,000 payment in time.
