How much epidemic aid was lost to fraud? Still answer ‘impossible to estimate’

By Brett Rowland (The Center Square)

A US House committee hearing made clear that the total cost of fraud and waste in taxpayer-funded pandemic relief programs is unknown.

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability argued over who was to blame for widespread fraud under federal pandemic relief programs, but they never got an answer to one key question: How much fraud was there?

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Federal officials floated loss estimates for certain programs.

A federal Report A report released last week estimated more than $60 billion in unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic. The US Department of Labor reported that nearly $878 billion in unemployment benefits were paid from April 2020 to September 2022.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee recently identified 69,323 questionable Social Security numbers used to receive $5.4 billion from the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and Paycheck Protection Program. The programs have provided nearly $1.2 trillion in aid.

At Wednesday’s hearing, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, asked federal experts whether estimates of $560 billion in fraud were accurate.

Determining the total cost of pandemic relief fraud is not easy and it can take time to get a final figure, said United States Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

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“It will take some time before the full extent of the fraud is known,” Dodaro said. “Over a thousand people have been convicted or convicted, there are over 600 charges pending against people, the Small Business Administration’s inspector general has 536 active investigations right now, the Labor Department’s inspector general is opening 100 new cases every week. So this is going to continue for a while. Widespread fraud. The indications are certainly there, but it is impossible to estimate the full extent at this time.

Lawmakers passed six COVID-19 relief laws that provided nearly $4.6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery. Of that, about $4.1 trillion had been spent as of Nov. 30, according to the US Treasury Department.

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.