Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Justice's (DOJ) overall management of its defense procurement fraud investigations.
GAO found that DOJ: (1) lacked complete and timely information about case referrals and case status, since investigating agencies and DOJ attorneys frequently failed to report such data to its Fraud and Corruption Tracking (FACT) System; (2) did not gather information about the number of attorneys involved in defense procurement fraud investigations and prosecutions; (3) stated that it needed more staff for such investigations and prosecutions but lacked a case-weighting system that could help it assess and justify additional resource requirements; and (4) lacked written management plans outlining its efforts in this area. GAO also found that: (1) turnover among attorneys and support staff had an adverse impact on investigations; (2) DOJ provided adequate, timely guidance to investigating attorneys on an as-needed basis; (3) DOJ case monitoring procedures varied according to each case's importance and sensitivity; (4) DOJ did not maintain written records of staff assignments or time commitments to specific cases; and (5) attorneys did not develop general or specific written investigation plans.
