Reports

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated a proactive review in January 2025 to identify fraud, waste, or abuse of pandemic relief benefits that may have impacted agency employees.

In June 2024, at our request, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) found and provided us 36 matches for U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) employees who were connected to federal government pandemic relief loans. Pursuant to the commitment of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to fostering and promoting accountability and integrity in government, we undertook an investigation into the 36 matches to determine the appropriateness of these employees receiving pandemic relief loans. Specifically, we sought to detect fraud in these pandemic relief loans.

The audit found the agency had significant issues implementing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The agency did not sufficiently review CARES invoices due to changing guidelines, reduced contract oversight staffing during the pandemic, overreliance on contractor-provided information, and the lack of clear and comprehensive Contracting Officer Representative (COR) oversight procedures for CARES invoices. As a result, the OIG questioned more than $16.4 million, or 40 percent of the sampled CARES invoice charges. As of June 8, 2021, NSA reported $917 million in CARES...