Contract Audits and Investigations (8 hours)

Objectives

• Understand potential risks in the various parts of the government contracting process
• Discuss examples of audits and investigations that revealed issues with government contracts and/or contractors
• Discuss potential fraud opportunities in government contracts
• Learn about methodologies for contract audits and investigations

Short Description

Relying on real life examples from government audits, this course provides a practical approach for auditing and investigating government contracts. Attendees will learn about phases of the contracting process and examples related to reviewing, auditing, and investigating contracts.  

Course Outline

Day 1

Overview

The contracting process: acquisition, administration, monitoring

Other terms: pre-signature vs. post-signature

Phases within the contracting process  

• Acquisition  
• Administration
• Monitoring

Audit risks within the contracting process

• Acquisition  
• Administration
• Monitoring

        Examples of contract audits

Contract Audit Exercise: Review a contract for potential audit risks

Contract Audit Exercise: Review contractor’s performance report to identify issues

Contract Audit Exercise: Identify fraud steps for a contract management audit

Day 2

        Integrity risks within the contracting process

• Acquisition  
• Administration
• Monitoring

Contract Investigation Examples

Contract Investigations Exercise: Identify red flags in vendor invoice(s)

Contract Investigations Exercise: Determine next steps for a contract-related allegation

Contract investigation don’ts  

Additional resources related to contract audits and investigations

        Wrap up