Glenn Fine, the Department of Defense’s principal deputy inspector general, said that the Office of the IG has made a “concerted effort†to reduce its backlog of whistleblower cases, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.Â
Fine told attendees that the DoD OIG is looking to deploy artificial intelligence and data analytics to “proactively look for fraud†instead of relying on whistleblowers who use the OIG hotline to report such cases. Assistant IG for Data Analytics David Yacobucci added that these new capabilities, although lacking in certainty, can help DoD investigators and auditors identify trends and nonobvious patterns from large volumes of data.
“Whistleblowers need to have their complaints handled in a timely way, otherwise they will not have confidence in the system,†Fine noted. “I would say that’s one of the key things that needs to be focused on. It is a challenge, given the multitude of complaints we get, but timeliness is very important.â€
