US Agency Under Fire — Management Condones Fraud
By Andrew Crawford, Marketing
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employs numerous telecommuters, who officials believe are spending more time vacationing than working.
A department of the U.S. government is taking a lot of heat for potential labor fraud. In the Patent and Trademark Office (PTAB), employees are permitted to work from home, and officials are now investigating allegations that most of these employees who telecommute actually do little to no work, but still receive full compensation. Their superiors are also under investigation, because it looks like they took specific actions to cover up this situation on their end as well.
Blow the Whistle — It’s Audit Time
There had been previous similar claims against the Patent and Trademark Office for years, but a formal investigation wasn’t launched until 2012.
Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser started his investigation looking into complaints made by various whistleblowers and then audited various units of the Patent and Trademark Office. His discoveries include “substantial, pervasive waste at the PTAB that endured for more than four years, and resulted in the misuse of federal resources totaling at least $5.09 million.”
How to Stop the Waste
Imagine if these U.S. government employees were to take a periodic, fraud-prevention test to assure they were actually putting in legitimate work. This easily could be possible with a new technology called EyeDetect™. EyeDetect is a quick, non-intrusive, easy-to-administer lie detection test that tracks the subtle movements of the eye. EyeDetect monitors these movements to determine when a person is telling the truth, and research shows it achieves an accuracy of 85% This is more accurate than the standard polygraph.
EyeDetect — produced by technology startup Converus — has the potential to change the name of the ethics game in business. This product could save companies lost revenue because of fraud, which is billion-dollar problem worldwide.
