[Comments on Proposed Legislation To Authorize Civil Penalties for Fraud]

GAO expressed support for proposed legislation that would authorize federal agencies to levy administrative penalties for making false claims or statements to the government. GAO believes that, since the government declines to prosecute many fraud cases because of the small dollar amounts involved or other lack of prosecutive merit, such authorization would deter fraud and increase the government's ability to recover misappropriated funds. GAO noted that the proposed legislation contains a number of improvements over similar, previously proposed legislation.