Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force has identified more than $1.2 billion in suspected fraud across five federal COVID-era contracts, according to a new announcement from the General Services Administration. The contracts remained in use after the national pandemic emergency ended in 2023. Officials say their review has also stopped another $41 million in payments. The finding raises questions about why emergency contracting arrangements continued to disburse money years later.
GSA conducted the review with the Department of Health and Human Services under the direction of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The five contracts were connected to HHS and retained their COVID-era emergency designation, according to the agencies. That designation matters because emergency contracting rules gave agencies greater flexibility during the pandemic. GSA says those particular acquisition flexibilities were canceled later in 2023, even as certain contractors continued receiving funds.
The announcement concerns suspected fraud, and the agencies haven’t publicly identified the five contractors in the materials released Thursday. Fox News reported that the funding flagged by the review isn’t currently tied to criminal charges against contractors. The $1.22 billion figure does not mean that the entire amount was paid to vendors. Officials say they are referring suspected wrongdoing to law enforcement while working to halt improper payments.
GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said the review uncovered $1.22 billion in suspected fraud across the five HHS contracts. In the agency’s September 24th announcement, Forst credited President Donald Trump and Vance’s task force for the work. “The COVID emergency ended over three years ago,” he said, while the contracts continued to be used. Forst said GSA would pursue referrals and seek to recover taxpayer money where possible.
The amount already spent appears smaller than the $1.22 billion figure. As Fox News reported, GSA estimates roughly 93% of the funding associated with the contracts hadn’t yet been distributed to vendors, while approximately 6.78% had been expended. The agency has suspended payments to contractors as part of the initiative. Fox also reported that millions of dollars in vaccine contracts were awarded after the pandemic emergency ended during the Biden administration.
Scott Brady, executive director of the White House task force, focused on the continued use of emergency arrangements. He said GSA’s review had identified the $1.22 billion in suspected fraud and stopped $41 million more across the five contracts. “Emergency authority is a privilege, not a blank check,” Brady said. He drew a distinction between contractors who performed legitimate pandemic work and contracts that continued to benefit from emergency treatment after the crisis had ended.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his department was working with GSA and the task force to trace the money and refer suspected cases to law enforcement. He also said the department would strengthen safeguards against improper payments. Neither agency’s announcement provided a contract-by-contract accounting or said how much of the expended funding investigators believe can be recovered. Those details will matter as officials move from identifying questionable contracts to establishing what happened to the money.
"*" indicates required fields
The discovery follows a separate GSA announcement in late August that the agency had identified more than $13 billion in suspected contractor fraud. Thursday’s release described the five HHS contracts as another finding in that broader procurement review. GSA said its expanded effort includes detecting suspected procurement fraud, stopping payments and referring potential cases for further action. The $1.22 billion represents the newly flagged COVID-related contracts, while the $41 million is the additional amount Brady said the review halted.