[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

Office of Inspector General

USDA's Office of Inspector General (OIG), the first civilian OIG in the Federal Government, was established in 1962 and became fully operational in 1963. OIG conducts and supervises audits and investigations relating to USDA's programs and operations. It provides leadership and coordination and recommends policies for activities that will prevent and detect fraud and abuse and promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in USDA programs and operations. Furthermore, OIG keeps the Secretary and Congress fully informed of problems and deficiencies related to administration of USDA programs and operations, and of the actions designed to correct such problems and deficiencies.

During the period April 1, 1997, through March 31, 1998, audit and investigative efforts resulted in approximately $107.6 million in recoveries, collections, fines, restitutions, claims established, administrative penalties, and costs avoided. Management agreed to put an additional $102.7 million to better use. OIG also identified $913.2 million in questioned costs that cannot be recovered. Investigative efforts resulted in 624 indictments and 604 convictions.

OIG began work on Presidential initiatives to improve the efficiency of three USDA programs. The first initiative, Operation Talon, is already resulting in the large-scale arrest of fugitive felons who are illegally receiving food stamps. Operation Talon was designed to locate and apprehend fugitives who were receiving food stamps, and was made possible by legislative changes in welfare reform. As of June 12, 1998, a total of 2,884 fugitive felons had been arrested, most of whom were current or former food stamp recipients. The fugitives arrested during Operation Talon have included dangerous felons wanted for murder, child molestation, rape, and kidnapping, and over one-third of those arrested were sought in connection with violent crimes or illegal drug activity. At a White House press announcement in December 1997, Vice President Al Gore announced the results of the first phase of Operation Talon. Following the announcement, OIG and the Food and Nutrition Service informed all States of the benefits of conducting similar matches.

The second Presidential initiative is detecting significant fraud committed by a number of Child and Adult Care Food Program sponsors around the country. For example, an official of a California sponsoring organization was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and her husband, the second sponsor official, was sentenced to 2 years. The couple was ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution. Two additional sponsor officials were sentenced to 7 months each in prison and ordered to pay a total of $60,000 in restitution.

The third Presidential initiative, which is being conducted jointly with the Rural Housing Service, is aimed at uncovering misuse of funds and hazardous living conditions in the Rural Rental Housing Program. Recent passage of amendments to the Housing Act of 1949 enabled the Inspector General and the Under Secretary for Rural Development to take aggressive action to identify and refer for prosecution those owners/managers and management companies who fraudulently charge expenses to their projects while allowing their projects to physically deteriorate.

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