AFOSI works to eliminate Fraud, Waste and Abuse

Published Aug. 4, 2015
By AFOSI 8th Field Investigative Squadron

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The Air Force Office of Special Investigations needs your help in identifying and reporting fraudulent activities.

Besides our general crimes, counterintelligence, and research and technology protection missions, a significant amount of AFOSI's resources are assigned to fraud investigations.

In the past few years, AFOSI has recovered well over a billion dollars defrauded from the USAF worldwide. This accomplishment is pretty amazing, considering only 10% of fraudulent activity is reported and or discovered. Imagine how much money we could recover or save if more people were educated on what to look for. So don't let anyone walk away with OUR money!

We've all heard the words Fraud, Waste and Abuse but would you really know what it was if you saw it? If so, would you know who to report it to? Let's start off with what is fraud. Fraud is defined as the crime of obtaining money or some other benefit by deliberate deception. Simply put, fraud is theft! Unfortunately, it's not always going to be that simple or obvious.

Fraud comes in many forms and can often be tricky to find. Bribery, identity theft, money laundering, embezzlement, and submitting false claims, are a few examples. These things can get complicated, and often times are covered up very well. Only those who are most familiar with the system can find ways to steal money or other products without setting off any alarms.

So to help you become more aware of what to look for, the following are some indicators of fraudulent activity: Brand new or newly renovated equipment or facilities that consistently break down or malfunction; Work orders that are consistently left unresolved or incomplete; a concentration of authority and or responsibility of one particular person for an entire process (i.e. the Government Purchase Card holder is also the approval and billing official); inadequate feedback on results of operations; unrealistic budgetary and/or acquisition requirements; lack of independent verification of records, transactions, and reports; inadequate physical safeguards over high value resources; failure to strictly enforce contract provisions and failure to correct deficiencies identified by existing systems.

Great, you now know how to detect fraudulent activities. Now what? Well this is the easy part. Contact the AFOSI 8th Field Investigative Squadron today and tell them what you know or ask for further assistance. Here's how. Come into the office, located at Bldg. 350, Room 2105. Want to remain anonymous? Call us at DSN 834-4347 or commercial (719) 556-4347. Don't feel like talking? Just shoot an e-mail to kevin.li@us.af.mil.

AFOSI works to eliminate FWA