Combating Fraud with a Risk Management Approach

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated in a 2025 report that the U.S. government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud. In its follow-up report and accompanying blog post, the watchdog agency “found that agencies still struggle with understanding whether their efforts work” to prevent fraud.

A combination of approaches provides the strongest protection against fraud, including tools to find weaknesses in internal controls, processes to assess fraud risks on an ongoing basis, analyses that determine the savings generated by antifraud investments – both justifying spending on antifraud protections and encouraging additional investments – and using AI to generate insights into emerging fraud risks or to aid advanced fraud detection.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify steps to create a top-down culture of integrity and ethical behavior
• Establish a framework for regular, thorough fraud risk assessments to identify vulnerable programs and processes
• Delineate necessary automated and manual controls, such as dual authorization for transactions, and strict access controls
• Outline training and awareness requirements for employees to identify red flags