Scamming taxpayers with an Act that prevents actions against misconduct?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Ethical Dilemma, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

According to Business Insider, the Commerce Department’s Inspector General concluded that thousands of employees in the federal Patent and Trademark Office scammed taxpayers out of at least $18.3 million, probably a lot more, by falsely claiming nearly 289,000 hours of work they never put in.

Questions:
1. What Act restricts federal officials from comparing multiple datasets to identify misconduct by employees and pursue either criminal or administrative action?
2. What percent of hours claimed by patent examiners were deemed to be fraudulent?
3. Although the article was not specific, what types of controls do you think the report might have recommended?

Source:
Pianin, E. (2016). US patent office employees scammed taxpayers for $18 million. Business insider, Sep. 1 (Retrievable online at http://www.businessinsider.com/us-patent-office-employees-scammed-taxpayers-for-18-million-2016-9)

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