MISSION The mission of the Governmental Fraud Program (GFP) is to oversee the nationwide investigation of allegations of fraud related to federal government procurement, contracts, and federally funded programs. The GFP's mission also includes management of antitrust, environmental crimes, and Integrity Committee matters of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE).  Additionally, the GFP is responsible for establishing and enhancing liaison with each Office of Inspector General (OIG) so that a comprehensive and coordinated approach to identified crime problems is implemented, and to facilitate appropriate referrals between the OIGs and the FBI. STRATEGY The GFP is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the FBI's investigations of fraud and corruption primarily related to federal procurement, contract, and federally funded entitlement programs and to manage the FBI's environmental crimes and antitrust programs. Losses attributed to these illegal acts amount to billions of dollars annually. To effectively attack this problem, the GFP promotes the use of advanced investigative techniques and uses the task force approach where multiple agency resources and intelligence are utilized to the most productive end. Additionally, the GFP is responsible for establishing and maintaining liaisons with each OIG so that a comprehensive and coordinated approach to identify crime problems is implemented, and a system is utilized to refer cases to appropriate agencies.  A major investigative focus of the GFP is a "proactive" effort involving fraud and corruption in government procurement and contracting. Federal agencies involved in acquiring goods or services are often subject to significant fraud schemes. The amount of money involved in the procurement process is staggering.  Those federal agencies with which the GFP has investigative involvement of the procurement process include the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Education, Energy, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  Another area on which the GFP has placed special emphasis is the investigation of environmental crimes. Liaison with federal and state regulatory agencies and with several investigative agencies such as the National Park Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Criminal Investigative Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice has proven crucial in establishing effective environmental crime task forces throughout the country. The GFP actively coordinates this effort and several specific ongoing initiatives which focus on the nation's waterways and environmental crimes associated with federal facilities.  A third investigative area receiving significant GFP resources is antitrust investigations. Antitrust involves investigating crimes by persons and corporations who, through collusion, set falsely high market prices for commodities in the U.S. and abroad, thus violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and other antitrust laws. One of the most difficult aspects of these investigations is obtaining inside information demonstrating that companies colluded.  The success of the GFP's mission is evidenced by the program's statistical accomplishments and the increased number of high-impact investigations of national significance. Nationwide, governmental fraud investigations during Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 resulted in more than 460 indictments/informations and more than $379 million in fines and restitution. At the end of FY 1998, there were over 1,500 governmental fraud, 485 environmental crimes and 86 antitrust pending investigations throughout the Bureau.  To Top