Prac Primer

Summary

A primer from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) describing its role and results. It states that the PRAC, established by the CARES Act in 2020, oversees spending across 500 pandemic relief programs and coordinates 20 federal Offices of Inspectors General. It reports that as of January 2025 the PRAC has supported over 1,000 investigations, and describes a Fraud Alert on the use of over 69,000 questionable Social Security Numbers to obtain $5.4 billion in relief loans and grants. It also describes the PRAC's data analytics center with 1.6 billion records, its Fraud Task Force of over 50 agents, and examples of its work, and quotes PRAC Chair Michael E. Horowitz on sustaining the data analytics center.

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About the PRAC

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) oversees and ensures

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Established by the CARES Act in 2020, the PRAC coordinates efforts among 20 federal
Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs), to safeguard taxpayer dollars, identify and mitigate risks,
and relentlessly pursue fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement to hold wrongdoers accountable.

Our work generates

As of January 2025, the PRAC has
supported over 1,000 investigations

As of January 2025, the PRAC and
C= federal OlGs have issued 945

into over 23,000 subjects, with an \ pandemic-related reports with 1,929
estimated potential fraud loss of recommendations and over $113.3
$2.4 billion. billion in total monetary findings.

We issued a Fraud Alert To help oversee a new $150 billion

identifying the use of over 69,000 relief program, the PRAC implemented
owns questionable Social Security solutions that halved the review time for

Numbers to obtain $5.4 billion in Treasury OIG auditors and helped identify
relief loans and grants. $2.2 billion in questioned costs.

Our insights Our

We and our partners launched the Blueprint Our data analytics center delivers unparalleled
for Enhanced Program Integrity, a how-to guide analytic, audit, and investigative support to the
for agencies, Congress, and the oversight oversight community, with 1.6 billion records
community to better prevent fraud. across public and non-public datasets.

We examined relief funding in various Our PRAC Fraud Task Force has over 50 agents
communities revealing significant data gaps from 18 member OlGs that investigate fraud
and reliability issues, making it challenging to using the data-driven insights and red flags
track how $2.65 billion was allocated and identified by our data analytics center, as well
spent, hindering transparency for taxpayers. as thousands of public hotline tips.

“Sustaining and expanding the PRAC’s data analytics center would save taxpayers millions, if not billions of
dollars, by eliminating the need to recreate a data analytics center in response to the next crisis and continu-
ing the critical work of preventing fraud and improper payments.”

-Michael E. Horowitz, PRAC Chair
Learn more about us at PandemicOversight.gov

Empowering partners,
Protecting taxpayer dollars
                Through a data-driven partnership, the PRAC helped the Pension Benefit
        $       Guaranty Corporation OIG recover $165 million in civil settlements related to
                improper payments.

  We issued a report revealing how unemployment insurance fraud, estimated by GAO
  at up to $135 billion, exploited systemic weaknesses during the pandemic through
  sophisticated schemes and methods.

                The PRAC helped identify over 90 potential fraud schemes targeting HUD’s pandemic
                relief programs. Some of those schemes were found in an investigation resulting in the
                highest number of bribery charges issued in a single day by DOJ.




PRAC Fraud Task Force in action
         Telecom provider and CEO pleaded                             Individual sentenced for theft of
         guilty and agreed to pay $109.6 million                      over $12.4 million in unemployment
 $       in restitution.                                              insurance and PPP funds.

         14 individuals charged with defrauding                       17 individuals charged, 6 sentenced thus
         the PPP of over $53M.                                        far in an unemployment fraud scheme.

         25-year sentence to a recidivist
                                                                      2 co-conspirators sentenced in a
         fraudster who stole over $1 million
                                                                      $7 million PPP and EIDL fraud scheme.
         in pandemic relief funds.




Behind the scenes: PRAC’s proactive approach
Example 1: We developed a risk model that helped the SBA OIG triage a surge of 6,000 weekly hotline
complaints during the pandemic, saving valuable time.

Example 2: We reported on the difficulty in tracking federal funding to its recipients, including more than
15,400 awards worth $33 billion that have vague or unclear descriptions about how the money was used.

Example 3: We uncovered $38 million in potentially fraudulent loans using Social Security Numbers of
deceased individuals, highlighting the benefits of using the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system to strengthen
program integrity.
                                                   Questions? Please contact Lisa Reijula at pracinformation@cigie.gov

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