The White House anti-fraud task force and the General Services Administration have uncovered $1.2 billion in suspected COVID-era contract fraud, discovering that emergency contracting and vaccine contracts continued long after the pandemic emergency officially ended in 2023. The authorities have suspended payments to contractors involved in these schemes and are referring suspected fraud to law enforcement as part of a broader crackdown on government waste.

Of the $1.2 billion identified across five Health and Human Services COVID-era contracts, approximately 93 per cent has not yet been distributed to vendors, whilst 6.78 per cent has already been spent. This discovery is part of a larger anti-fraud initiative that has uncovered a total of $245.7 billion in suspected fraud since the current administration took office, with the Department of Health and Human Services identifying $96.4 billion in fraud across Medicare and Medicaid programmes. Officials have identified foreign nationals who infiltrated the federal contracting system and received funds whilst residing in their home countries.