Our Publications & Reports

Our mission to understand communities’ experiences with pandemic funding and programs brought us next to Sheridan County, Nebraska. Read how this county used pandemic relief funding to respond to and mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Future reports will provide valuable lessons learned from other locations to improve federal emergency response programs.

Policymakers: Incorporate strategies from Chapter 2 of our Blueprint for Enhanced Program Integrity to protect programs against fraud and improper payments. These measures can be incorporated into emergency and non-emergency funded programs. 

Our mission to understand communities’ experiences with pandemic funding and programs brought us next to Coeur d’Alene, ID. Read how this city used pandemic relief funding to respond to and mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Future reports will provide valuable lessons learned from other locations to improve federal emergency response programs.

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in federal pandemic relief spending.

Our mission to understand communities’ experiences with pandemic funding and programs brought us to Springfield, MA. Read how this city used pandemic relief funding to respond to and mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Future reports will provide valuable lessons learned from other locations to improve federal emergency response programs.

Unemployment insurance (UI) fraud was rampant during the pandemic. We sampled 45 fraud cases to learn about the schemes and methods fraudsters used and to identify what can be done to improve UI programs for the future. Read our report to find out more.

We’re on a mission to understand how communities responded to the pandemic and how the federal government can improve emergency response programs. Read about six communities’ experiences with pandemic funding and programs. Future reports will take a closer look at each location's experience.

Learn from the experts in this recap of insights and best practices shared during our Agile Oversight Forum. Combined with our Agile Products Toolkit, you'll have all the resources you need to start incorporating agile strategies into your own work.

Federal contract and grant awards increased rapidly during the pandemic. We surveyed 29 federal agencies to learn what hurdles both workforces faced and the creative strategies they used to combat those challenges. Read the full report providing insights to help with future national emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic put an unprecedented strain on our health care system. We surveyed more than 300 facilities across four federal health care programs and learned most had a hard time hiring and maintaining the staff they needed. Read the full report to find out why.

It can be difficult for people to resolve issues after their identity is stolen. Victims report feeling burdened by the federal government’s decentralized redress process. We commissioned a report that proposes a whole-of-government, victim-centered approach to comprehensively supporting individuals throughout the process. Read the report and learn more. 

Following your money is our mission, but it can be hard. Our report has new insights into challenges we had following pandemic relief funds in six communities. Read the report.

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic response spending.

In the Fraud Alert, we found nearly $38 million in pandemic loans were obtained using the Social Security Numbers of deceased individuals.

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic response spending.

In this report, we share insights from six oversight partners on the surge of telehealth use in federal healthcare programs, and how the watchdog community can safeguard these programs against fraud, waste, and abuse.

In this report, the PRAC’s Identity Fraud Reduction and Redress Working Group provides insights agencies can use to reduce identity fraud in pandemic relief programs and help victims recover from the damage.

Our collaborative efforts have led to several lasting insights about pandemic relief oversight, outlined here in our Lessons Learned Report—a living document that we’ll update as we continue our mission.

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic response spending.

This commissioned study highlights best practices for minimizing fraud risk and lessons learned from the State Workforce Agencies that administered pandemic unemployment insurance programs.

The program gave out $800 billion in forgivable loans, making it a prime target for fraudsters. When Congress authorized a second round of loans, the Small Business Administration added more fraud controls. Did they work? Read the report to find out.

See highlights and view the full report on the challenges faced by state workforce agencies to provide pandemic unemployment insurance benefits to individuals directly impacted by the pandemic. ​​

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic response spending. ​​ Learn more in our report.

More than 15,400 pandemic-related awards worth $33 billion have meaningless descriptions of how the money was spent. Read about how we’re working to make it easier for the public to know where their tax dollars are going.  Learn more in our report.

The federal government awarded $28 billion in pandemic response contracts between April 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020. Some of that went to contractors who had never worked for the government before. How well did they perform? Learn more in our report.

Prisons and detention facilities are high-risk environments for COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths. How did federal agencies handle the pandemic in those environments? Read the report to find out more.

See highlights and view the full report on our efforts to promote public transparency and ensure coordinated oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic response spending.

This report identifies four new challenges faced by federal agencies as they manage the distribution of $3.5 trillion in pandemic-related funding. It also outlines the work being done by the Offices of Inspectors General to detect and prevent fraud and misuse of the funds.

This report examines COVID-19 testing efforts for six federal health care programs during the first seven months following the declaration of a public health emergency in the United States. Published by the PRAC Health Care Subgroup, the report takes a detailed look at testing data in each of the programs that, when combined, provide benefits or care for about 64 million individuals. Get the details here.

This toolkit identifies and defines four primary situations where your office may want to consider using an agile product. Consider these guidelines, best practices and lessons learned while conducting, completing, and issuing reports or other work products.

A commissioned study that identifies gaps in federal data sources and how we can close them to improve the quality of the information we provide to the public.

View highlights from the PRAC's first semiannual report or read the report in its entirety to review work from the PRAC's first six months.

Insight into the top management challenges facing federal agencies that received pandemic related funding as identified by Offices of Inspector General.

Our Strategic Plan details how we will serve the American public by promoting transparency and the coordinated oversight of the Federal Government’s coronavirus response to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.