The Bureau of Special Investigations
(BSI) is composed of a team of dedicated and highly trained professional investigators who help to improve State Government and make it more efficient.
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BSI investigates cases related to:
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Violation of Commonwealth policies, rules, and regulations
Abuse of authority or misuse of property by
Commonwealth Employees
Contract fraud and/or irregularities by
Commonwealth Employees or Vendors
Commonwealth Employee Misconduct
Mismanagement of funds within Commonwealth agencies under the Governor's jurisdiction
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Office of Inspector General
555 Walnut Street
Harrisburg , PA 17101 USA
To report welfare fraud, call 800-932-0582
To report misconduct by Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania employees, call 877-888-7927
For general inquiries, please call 717-787-6835
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Contracting to acquire goods or services
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Often based on relationships
Decisions to acquire made objectively and subjectively
Purchases dictated by company/Government policies and procedures
Conflicts arise between operations and financial controls
Process is often challenged by various workarounds
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Definition:
Unlawful manipulation of the process to acquire goods or services to obtain an unfair advantage.
Dishonestly obtaining an advantage, avoiding an obligation, or causing a loss to public property through various means during procurement process by public servants, contractors, or any other person involved in the procurement.
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A technique used to gather information during the requirements elicitation phase of a project. It describes the act of reviewing the existing documentation of comparable business processes or systems in order to extract pieces of information that are relevant to the current project.
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The application of investigation and analysis techniques to gather and preserve evidence from a particular computing device in a way that is suitable for presentation in a court of law.
The goal of computer forensics is to perform a structured investigation while maintaining a documented chain of evidence to find out exactly what happened on a computing device and who was responsible for it.
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The reduction and organization of a body of data to produce results that can be interpreted by the researcher; a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods may be used, depending upon the nature of the data to be analyzed and the design of the study.
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Conflict of Interest
Phantom Vendor
Split Purchases
Kickbacks
Personal Purchases
Duplicate Payment
Defective/Substituted Products
Fictitious Invoices
Bid Rigging
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Description:
Misusing position to award contracts to firms in return for personal gain (money, family employment, or other gratuities).
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Indicators:
Lifestyle changes
Refusal to change vendors
Failure to enable bidding procedures
Continuous use of same vendor
Significant increase in pricing
Increase in product complaints
Decline promotions
* Case Example
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Description:
Employee establishes a fictitious vendor and submits false invoices for payment (or invoice may not exist to support payment).
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Indicators:
Photocopied invoices
Lack of invoices to support payments
Employee address matches vendor's address
* Case Example
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Description:
Purchases made on the same day from the same vendor that appear to circumvent single purchase limits, i.e. splitting the transaction into more than one segment to avoid the requirement to obtain competitive bids or a budget ceiling.
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Indicators:
Multiple invoices dated the same day for the same product
Lack of invoices to support payments
Sequential or nearly sequential purchase/vendor invoice numbers
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Description:
Often facilitated through accounts payable. A company or individual submits an invoice for services that never occurred, or the invoice submitted is inflated by the amount of the kickback sent to the conspiring employee.
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Indicators:
Paid invoices that lack additional appropriates supporting documentation
Growing frequency of purchases from one vendor
Award contracts without bids
Increase in services
Continued use of same vendor
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Description:
Employee utilizes company/Government funds to purchase personal items for self use or fraudulent gains.
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Indicators:
Employee address matches vendor's address
Altered or bogus support documentation
Initiated fraudulent purchase requisitions
Supplier not known
Post Office box addresses
* Case Example
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Description:
Duplicate payments made to a vendor without services rendered to justify the second payment.
This fraud is normally committed by a vendor with the collusion of an employee.
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Indicators:
Multiple duplicate payments of the same or similar amounts to a vendor for the same invoice number
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Description:
When a vendor contractually consents to supply products using a certain grade, quality of parts, materials from designated companies or set standards, then fails to comply with the contract. These vendors often decide it is more profitable to use or substitute inferior parts or parts not made by authorized companies.
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Indicators:
Lifestyle changes
Refusal to change vendors
Failure to enable bidding procedures
Continuous use of same vendor
Significant increase in pricing
Increase in product complaints and/or product returns
* Case Example
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Description:
Suppliers or contractors intentionally submit false (meaning that no services were provided), duplicate or inflated invoices. The scheme can involve a contractor acting alone or in collusion with an employee of the victim organization who shares in the profits.
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Indicators:
Invoiced goods or services cannot be located in inventory or accounted for
No receiving report for invoiced goods or services
Discrepancies between invoice and supporting documents
Questionable or no purchase order for invoiced goods or services
Invoice prices, amounts, item descriptions or terms exceed or do not match
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Description :
Bid rigging is a form of collusive price-fixing behavior by which firms coordinate their bids on procurement or project contracts, including arrangement of bidding process to guarantee selection of a vendor.
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Indicators :
Allowing rebids to selected vendors
Rotation of bids
Supplying faulty/inferior materials
Excessive control over selection process
Continuous use of vendor without business reason
Increased pricing
Substandard products
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Unusual or unauthorized vendors
Large gifts and entertainment expenses
Unusual increase in vendor spending
Round-dollar amounts
Copies of supporting documentation in lieu of originals
Duplicate payments
Tips and/or complaints
Sequential invoices paid
Unusual/large/round-dollar amounts paid
Payments just under authorization level
Employee-vendor address match
Multiple invoices paid on same date
Slight variation of vendor names
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Office of Inspector General
555 Walnut Street
Harrisburg , PA 17101 USA
James H. Timko | Special Assistant to the Inspector General
Jatimko@pa.gov-Phone: 717.787.6835 | Fax: 717.724.6878
Robert A. Zeplin, CFE | Special Investigator 2 rzeplin@pa.gov -Phone: 717.783.7813 | Fax: 717.724.6828
Martin B. Molitoris | Special Investigator 2 mmolitoris@pa.gov -Phone: 717.214.1299 | Fax: 717.724.6833
To report welfare fraud, call 800-932-0582
To report misconduct by Commonwealth of Pennsylvania employees, call 877-888-7927
For general inquiries, please call 717-787-6835
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