The prevalence of pandemic relief fraud is driving federal information technology leaders to look for ideas across agencies to protect IT systems and public programs from fraud, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.
Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said at a symposium Tuesday that CIOs should work with chief financial officers, across agencies and with the oversight community to address the challenge associated with fraud detection and prevention.
“This is a critical moment for all of us,” noted Martorana, a previous Wash100 awardee. “This is a combination of the need based on what we have seen occur during the pandemic and the pandemic relief. But we’re also on a really important journey from a cybersecurity perspective, where the federal government, we have put out some really great policies.”
Deidre Harrison, acting controller at the Office of Management and Budget, said federal CFOs should not only focus on identifying and recovering funds lost to pandemic-related fraud but also on having better tools in place to detect and prevent fraud.
“Not ‘if,’ but when we have another event, we need to be better prepared,” Harrison said. “We need to make sure that we can prevent the fraud that we just experienced.”
