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Friday, February 06, 2015

Attorney General Frosh Urges New Tool to Crack Down on Fraud

Baltimore, MD - Calling it a powerful tool to prevent fraud and abuse in state and local government, Attorney General Brian E. Frosh today unveiled his top priority for the 2015 legislative session and urged the General Assembly to adopt the Maryland False Claims Act.

Under the Act, submitted today with bipartisan support in both the Senate and House of Delegates, whistleblowers would be empowered and encouraged to alert government about fraud committed by private contractors. The law would allow state and local employees, among others, to file lawsuits on behalf of governments, with whistleblowers receiving a portion of funds recovered through the litigation they initiate.

"The False Claims Act multiplies our resources to fight against fraud," Attorney General Frosh said. "What this law does, in effect, is incentivize integrity."

"When the government is being cheated, it often remains in the dark," Frosh said. "Employees often have the most detailed knowledge about what is going on, and this new law would help bring that information to light, for everyone's benefit."

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3 comments:

Steve said...

Oh, absolutely not! This is not only the most unconstitutional thought there is, but it directly defies the 10th Amendment and several others!

Throw this garbage out the door immediately! We need smaller government, not one that whoever works for it can sue us.Frosh has lost ALL his marbles!

Anonymous said...

When the government is being cheated? Really? There is more cheating from WITHIN than by Private Contractors. How about stopping lobbyist, or making their money go to the STATE or LOCAL community, versus in an elected officials pocket?

Anonymous said...

The AG should be looking into local government employees committing fraud. They would find some very interesting facts starting the heads of departments right on down the chain-of-command. Fraud from within is much more prevalent than you think. Timesheet fraud, vehicles for personal use, overtime, awarding of contracts.