I began my search to see if there was a single hotline phone number in Georgia to report waste, fraud, or abuse for any reason, about any state office or program, regardless of type.
Now, I am not sure how much money the State of Georgia allocates for the investigation and prosecution of these crimes, but at least I assumed a single phone number with options like “For Health Complaints, press 1; for Transportation complaints press 2; for State Patrol or State police complaints, press 3; for other State Government offices, press 4; for all other state complaints, press 5″…or something similar to it. But other than possibly the Office of Inspector General, what I found were the following several different phone numbers for a limited number of reasons:
- If you see fraud, waste or abuse in state government, call the taxpayers’ watchdog, the Inspector General’s confidential hotline 1-866-HELP-OIG, or visit www.oig.ga.gov.”
- Reporting Mortgage Fraud and Common Mortgage Fraud Schemes. Mortgage fraud is a sub-category of Financial Institution Fraud (FIF).
There are two distinct areas of mortgage fraud—fraud for profit and fraud for housing.
- Fraud for profit: Those who commit this type of mortgage fraud are often industry insiders using their specialized knowledge or authority to commit or facilitate the fraud. Current investigations and widespread reporting indicate a high percentage of mortgage fraud involves collusion by industry insiders, such as bank officers, appraisers, mortgage brokers, attorneys, loan originators, and other professionals engaged in the industry. Fraud for profit aims not to secure housing, but rather to misuse the mortgage lending process to steal cash and equity from lenders or homeowners. The FBI prioritizes fraud for profit cases.
- Fraud for housing: This type of fraud is typically represented by illegal actions taken by a borrower motivated to acquire or maintain ownership of a house. The borrower may, for example, misrepresent income and asset information on a loan application or entice an appraiser to manipulate a property’s appraised value.
- The State of Georgia Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigates fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the State of Georgia’s Executive Branch agencies. Call (866) 435-7644 or submit a complaint online.
- Georgia Environmental Finance Authority was established to report crimes related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 even though the program has ended. Please be specific on how the funds related to the entity/program you are reporting is related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (to include others who may have specific information and/or documents related to your allegation). The ARRA was estimated to cost $787 billion saving 1.6 million jobs over 4 years or about $122,970/job/year.
- Medicaid Program Integrity – This business unit is responsible for contract oversight, special investigations, recipient investigations and clinical teams. It handles intake and triage of cases before turning them over to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Georgia Attorney General’s office. The purpose of the Medicaid Program Integrity unit is to guard against fraud, abuse and deliberate waste of Medicaid Program Benefits. Medicaid Program Integrity ensures that Georgia taxpayer funds are used in a responsible manner. The unit also has oversight of state and federal funds.
- Medicaid Fraud Control Unit – The mission of the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) is to serve the public, to uphold and enforce the law, to investigate and prosecute fraud and abuse by providers in the Georgia Medicaid program and to protect vulnerable patients from abuse.
- Peach State Health Plan – Peach State Health Plan is committed to identifying, investigating, and prosecuting those who commit health care fraud. Peach State Health Plan’s Vice President of Compliance has overall responsibility and authority for carrying out the provisions of the compliance and WAF programs. If you suspect or witness health care fraud committed by a provider, member, or employee, please call Peach State Health Plan’s anonymous and confidential hotline at (866) 685-8664.
- Georgia Forestry Commission – If you are a member of the public or an employee of another agency, please use this form to report your concerns. You may also contact the GFC’s HR Director who serves as the agency’s Ethics Officer at 678-476-6224 or at HR@gfc.state.ga.us.
- Georgia Department of Education – Unfortunately, this is only limited to school employees – Employees at the State Schools will report any known and/or suspected fraud, waste, and abuse of resources to GaDOE officials.
- The Georgia Collaborative Administrative Services Organization (ASO) is a partner with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities (DBHDD) that facilitates the provision of integrated behavioral health and developmental disabilities supports and services to more than 200,000 Georgia residents statewide.
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud – SNAP fraud is when (a) SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash. This is called trafficking and it is against the law; (b) SNAP fraud also happens when someone lies on their application to get benefits or to get more benefits than they are supposed to get; or (c) SNAP fraud also happens when a retailer has been disqualified from the program for past abuse and lies on the application to get in the program again.
- Reporting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in HUD programs – If you are aware of fraud, waste, and abuse in HUD’s public housing and/or housing choice voucher (HCV) programs, fill out the OIG Hotline Complaint Intake Form.
- How to report Medicare fraud – You can report suspected Medicare fraud in any of these ways: (a) Call us at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). <b) report=”” it=”” online=”” to=”” the=”” <a=”” href=”https://forms.oig.hhs.gov/hotlineoperations/report-fraud-form.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1″>Office of the Inspector General. (c) Call the Office of the Inspector General at 1‑800‑HHS‑TIPS (1‑800‑447‑8477). TTY: 1‑800‑377‑4950. </b)>
How to Report Fraud in Georgia. To report fraud or a scam in the state of Georgia, start with the Attorney General, Better Business Bureau or contact the local municipal, state or Federal regulators most likely to have answers to your questions.
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