Management Advisories

LSC OIG issued a comprehensive Strategy for Preventing and Detecting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse. Increasingly, OIGs and managers of federal funds are being called upon by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and others to enhance fraud prevention activities. OIG actions include conducting quick-hit fraud prevention reviews at grantees to identify gaps in policies or processes that could be exploited, enhancing awareness of common schemes and how to report fraud, and leveraging available information to proactively identify red flag indicators and emerging trends. In the end, every dollar wasted through the commission of fraud is one that is diverted from funding civil legal aid.

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has identified that monitoring of student loan assistance programs may present an emerging risk. Although our work to date has involved a few recently completed and ongoing oversight engagements, based on our professional judgment and experience we believe that LSC could consider taking steps to proactively enhance monitoring of student loan assistance funds.