Welfare fraud and abuse involves the use of vast amounts of the federal money for various activities and programs without accounting for the value attached to those amounts of money. The transactions and programs where the money of taxpayers are channeled led to many cases of fraud and abuse of such funds by the responsible agencies and administrators. The money and funds used in the government grants and subsidy programs are subject to fraud and abuse. The people responsible for handling and management of such funds ending up misusing and abusing the money by channeling to their personal activities and benefits. The individuals use the funds budgeted for specific projects inappropriately especially for personal benefits leading to the failure of the federal projects. The funds in such social programs are abused and used inappropriately to do other things that were not budgeted for in the projects. The welfare fraud and abuse has negative implications on the whole society (Banks, 2013, p.22). The ultimate consequences and challenges of such frauds and abuse of welfare encompass the aspects of the whole population. The welfare frauds and abuse have a negative impact on the economic development of the nation in relation to the failure or incomplete status of many projects. The poor management of such funds is responsible for the many cases of welfare fraud and abuse. The nature of the political systems also contributes highly to the cases of the welfare frauds and abuse of public resources.
Welfare fraud and abuse in the health sector is common due to the nature and complexity of the medical activities. The healthcare programs relating to drugs and medicines are used by the administrators and employees to carry out frauds and abuse of such public funds. The funds budgeted for drugs and healthcare training are abused by the managers of such funds. The frauds in the health sector are facilitated by the buying of substandard or inefficient products other than those budgeted for. The misuse and abuse of such public finances in the health sector have severe consequences on the whole society. The welfare frauds affect the health sector negatively because the healthcare facilities will be insufficient and inadequate in the provision of medical care at the public hospitals and healthcare clinics. The abuse of the funds and equipment in the health sector leads to poor service delivery in the health sector. This in turn leads to deterioration of the public health characterized by high number of deaths of the patients in hospitals. The inaccessibility to adequate drugs also contributes to the negative effects on the health sector. The figures and values are manipulated pertaining to the cost of drugs and medical facilities in the health sector. The manipulation of such values leads to huge losses of funds in the Medicare. The drugs in the health sector are often abused leading to the shortage of such drugs in hospitals. The government, therefore, suffers huge losses due to the welfare frauds and abuse. The welfare fraud and abuse in Medicare is a matter of concern because it contributes to a decrease in the value of services to the customers and the general public. The aspects relating to the salaries and payroll services in the health sector are common leading to erroneous payments by misusing the public funds. The abuse and fraud problems in the health sector are of public concern because it has far reaching effects on the whole society. The fraud and abuse of the healthcare facilities should be taken into keen consideration because it is very prone to cases of manipulation especially the prescription of drugs. The government should put the appropriate audit mechanisms in place in order to curb the aspects of relating to the abuse of such healthcare facilities.
The aspects of welfare fraud and abuse are also common in the payroll systems of the public organization. The public institutions deals with a large number of workers in their systems. This gives room for manipulation of the payroll system by the accountants and administrators. The inclusion of the ghost workers in the payroll systems leading to loss of large amounts of money. The effects of the ghost workers on the public institutions is that productivity and efficiency declines. The salaries to the ghost workers are a burden to the public institutions due to the loss of large amounts of resources. The frauds relating to inflation of salaries is also common in the public institutions (Hooper, 2011, p.18). The expenses and costs of operations of the public institutions increase consistently leading to the general inefficiency of such institutions. The aspects relating to ghost workers and frauds of the payroll systems should be taken into keen consideration in order to prevent such frauds in the future especially in the public institutions. The proper auditing strategies and techniques should be put in place in order to prevent and detect the frauds relating to the ghost workers and payroll systems of the public institutions. The audit procedures will play an important role in preventing the waste of public resources through frauds and misuse by the employees and administrators.
The federal housing is also a potential ground for frauds and abuse of the public resources. The companies in the real estate industry take advantage of the poor people to make huge profits. The operators in the real estate take advantage of the shortage in housing facilities to manipulate the terms and conditions of housing so as to exploit the poor majority that use such housing facilities. Most of the frauds in the real estate involves the issues of mortgage loans. The mortgage loans are used to exploit the poor people in the name of owning such houses. The cost of mortgage loans is exploitative leading to large losses to the general public. The employees in the real estate industry misuse the money of taxpayers to fake grants and subsidies. The fake subsidies led grants ends up benefiting individuals running such programs. The frauds are also commonly relating to the construction of public works resulting in the loss of large amounts of funds of the public. The costs of construction are often overestimated by the government contractors in order to fraud and abuse the large amounts of taxpayer's money in carrying out such construction projects. The whole public, therefore, suffer indirectly because their taxes and funds are misused or consumed by a small group of individuals involved in running such public projects(Valera, 2013,p.16). The government should put in place independent audit mechanisms, in the construction industry so as to value the projects in relation to the amount of materials and costs of such materials used in the construction. This will help in reducing the extent of misuse of public resources in the construction industry. This will play an important role in improving the welfare of the general public.
The aspects relating to the students are also manipulated in order to abuse the public funds. The interest rates relating to the student loans are also manipulated in order to take advantage of the students during repayment time. The unfair rates of interests are charged on student loans leading to very large amounts of profits to the people operating the schemes of the student loans. The large amounts of the student loans and the risky ways of operation make the operators rob the government large amounts of money. The different income levels of the incomes of the students also made it possible for frauds and abuse of such schemes by the operators. The taxpayers suffer very large amounts of expenses due to such large frauds in the student loans schemes. The deficits that result from such frauds leaves a large burden to the taxpayers. The education institutions also pilfer the money meant for students in the form of loans and bursaries leading to a heavy burden to the general public.
In conclusion, the welfare fraud and abuse of the public resources have a negative consequence to all of us. The frauds take place in various sectors of the public institutions leading to heavy losses to the government. Welfare frauds and abuse also lead to budget deficits that translate to the burden on the taxpayers. The taxpayers bear such shortages of finances in the government projects. The aspects of welfare frauds and abuse of the public resources have unpleasant effects on the whole society regardless of who is perpetrating such frauds. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the general public to curb such problems.
References
Banks, K. (2013). Welfare grind 3. Brandywine, MD: Life Changing Books.
Berkowitz, E. D., & DeWitt, L. (2013). The other welfare: Supplemental security income and U.S. social policy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hooper, A., Ormerod, D. C., Murphy, P., Leveson, B., Phillips, J., & Atkinson, D. (2011).Blackstone's criminal practice, 2012. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
United States (2013). Hearing on the use of technology to better target benefits and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, second session, April 19, 2012.
Valera, D., & Utica College (2013). Welfare fraud in the state of California.
