The State of Counter-Fraud Capabilities in the Public Sector

When assessing the results of a recent GovLoop survey of federal, state and local government employees, several important takeaways stand out that, when combined, paint an interesting picture of the state of anti-fraud technology today in the public sector:

1. Fraud is a universal concern. Taxpayers and government organizations clearly view fraud — and combating fraud — as a high priority.

97.3% say fraud is an issue that government needs to deal with.

78.5% say fraud is a concern at their organization.

2. The explosion of available data has rendered manual fraud detection efforts far less effective.

64.9% say big data analytics capabilities would improve their organization’s anti-fraud effort.

40.9% say their organization does not have an effective solution for detecting and preventing fraud.

60.6% of those with an effective fraud solution — and 34.6% of all respondents — say their system can analyze data from multiple disparate data sources.

52.7% of those with an effective fraud solution — and 30.1% of all respondents — say their system can provide real-time data analysis.

60.6% of those with an effective fraud solution say their system can analyze data from multiple disparate data sources.

3. Although fraud detection and prevention are clearly high priorities within the public sector, so is the protection of individual privacy.

#1 ranked requirement for a fraud management solution: providing and protecting privacy — and the ability to limit displaying sensitive fraud information (chosen by 41.7% of respondents).

4. There is a recognized need within government to continue modernizing and growing fraud detection and prevention capabilities. This is especially true for capabilities that can prevent fraud; detect fraud in real time; develop deep, data-driven insights; and adapt to evolving fraud patterns.

#2 ranked requirement for a fraud management solution: preventive control capabilities to avoid employee fraud (chosen by 28.7% of respondents).

#3 ranked requirement for a fraud management solution: ability to spot suspicious activity in real time (chosen by 28.4% of respondents).

#4 ranked requirement for a fraud management solution: ability to monitor data in real time (chosen by 25.9% of respondents).

5. Public-sector organizations lack adequate information technology skills that are perceived as needed to operate modern fraud detection and prevention solutions that use data analytics technologies.

#1 ranked priority for better identifying and remediating fraud: a digital skill set.

21.2% of those lacking an effective fraud solution say it is because they do not have the required skill set.

Download the full brief here.