Antitrust Division Recovery Initiative

The Antitrust Division has dedicated significant resources to an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Initiative. The focus of this Initiative is to assist agencies receiving ARRA funds in preventing and deterring violations of criminal antitrust laws by:

• Providing training: The Division is committed to helping the investigative arms of agencies receiving ARRA funds to build strategies to train individuals at all levels of the funding process on fraud and collusion awareness.
  
• Preparing and distributing publications: The Division will develop and distribute materials for fund recipients on fraud and collusion detection, prevention, and reporting.

Through this Initiative, the Antitrust Division hopes to make a significant impact on the overall prevention of third-party fraud, waste, and abuse relating to the securing and use of ARRA funds.

Short-Term Goals

The short-term goals of the Antitrust Division's initiative are:

• Partner with agencies to coordinate training at the national, regional, and local level for agency procurement/grant officials, auditors, and investigators, as well as contractors and state and municipal procurement/grant officials, on techniques for identifying the red flags of potential fraud, waste, and abuse.
• Partner with agencies to produce printed materials on fraud and collusion awareness indicators to mass distribute to agency and non-agency individuals who will be handling and/or facilitating awards of agency ARRA funds.

Long-Term Goals

The long-term goals of the Antitrust Division's initiative are:

• Make a significant impact on the overall prevention of third-party fraud, waste, and abuse relating to the securing and use of ARRA funds.
• Establish a continuing relationship with the various agencies’ IG offices such that, when preventive mechanisms fail to protect ARRA funds from third-party fraud or collusion, those offices know that we are here to help investigate and prosecute any criminal conduct directed at thwarting competition for those funds.
• Connect our antitrust experts with agency program, procurement, and grant officials in order to begin a dialogue about “best practices” agencies may adopt to protect their procurement and program funding processes from third-party abuse and to maximize open and fair competition.

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