Washington, March 17 (IANS) US President Donald Trump announced a new federal task force to tackle fraud in government programmes, naming Vice President JD Vance to lead what he described as a “whole of government” effort.
“This is a very big thing that we're doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It's about fraud, having to do with all the fraud that's taking place in our country.”
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the order would establish “a new task force aimed at rooting out that fraud, returning potentially billions or tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars to the American taxpayer”.
The task force will be chaired by Vance, with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson serving as vice chairman. Scharf said it would launch “a whole of government approach to rooting out the very serious problem of fraud in federally funded programs around the country”.
Trump pointed to specific states as examples of alleged abuse. “If we found half of the fraud that's taking place in this country, and I think you have a chance of doing that, we would have much more than a balanced budget,” he said. “The theft is incredible.”
Vance said the administration had identified gaps in coordination between agencies. “One big hole that existed is that the agencies of the government weren't actually talking to each other,” he said.
He added that the order would force “the entire apparatus of the federal government” to “stop the fraud on the American taxpayer” and ensure benefits “go to American citizens and not to fraudsters”.
Citing an example, Vance described alleged misuse of Medicaid funds. “It's got to stop,” he said, adding that such cases were “repeated and replayed all over the United States of America”.
Ferguson said fraud was diverting money away from essential services. “Millions and millions of Americans pay into these programs every day, and they expect to get something out of it,” he said. “This fraud is just siphoning money that millions of Americans pay to fund their hospitals, to fund their day care centers, into completely fake businesses.”
Trump used the event to criticise previous administrations and Democrats more broadly. He said anti-fraud controls had been “unbelievably lax” and suggested political leaders had ignored the problem.
Asked why earlier leaders had not addressed systemic fraud, Trump replied: “Because they're crooked, they make money, they gain power, they use it for power.”
He also said: “The previous administration was fraudulent. OK? And I think that's what you're going to find also.”
On enforcement, Vance outlined two key tools. “When we see evidence of fraud, we stop the payments,” he said. He added that prosecution would also be central, noting: “We know that some of this fraud is just bad, some of it's criminal.”
“We have to make sure that where we see criminal conduct, we actually prosecute it all the way to the end,” Vance said.
The announcement comes as the administration pushes to tighten oversight of federal spending and link enforcement with broader political messaging on governance and accountability.
--IANS
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