Whistleblower Payouts Could Have Reached $252 billion in 2013

According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations lose an estimated 5 percent of annual revenues to fraud.  Based on the Gross Domestic Product for 2013, this indicates estimated annual fraud losses of more than $840 billion among organizations in the United States.  That means that the maximum payout to Whistleblowers in the United States could have been $252 billion if the Government recovered the $840 billion in fraud.

In 2013, the IRS paid out only 0.2% ($52 million/$252 billion) of the potential amount that the Government could have paid to Whistleblowers.  Based on the $840 billion in total potential fraud in the United States, why aren't the IRS's phones ringing off the hook with Whistleblower tips?

According to Forbes.com,  "The statistics in the annual report to Congress show that the IRS continues to fail to capitalize on the wealth of detailed information about major tax fraud and abuse that whistleblowers have provided to the IRS program over the past seven years.  Hundreds of millions, and likely billions of dollars, could be recovered with whistleblower help if the IRS would act on the information provided rather than sit on it.  The IRS whistleblower program has been a major disappointment. The root of the problem is the anti-whistleblower attitude ingrained in the IRS culture – a status quo that no IRS commissioner has attempted to change, leaving Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) as the primary government champion to prod the IRS to work with whistleblowers."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced Thursday he will create the Senate Whistleblower Caucus to ensure protections for federal employees exposing wrongdoing at their agencies are being enforced.  Good for you Sen Grassley!  Why not create protection for all Whistleblowers that report wrongdoing?

"It is time to clear the air, punish the guilty and protect the whistleblowers."-Tony Leon

Related Links:

http://www.acfe.com/rttn-archive.aspx

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/irs-paid-53-million-whistleblowers-2013-23198128

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2014/04/08/irs-cheats-taxpayers-by-ignoring-whistleblowers/