Civilian Acquisitions: Selected Agencies' Use of Criminal Background Checks on Contractor Principals to Prevent Fraud

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on selected agencies' use of criminal background checks to help prevent contractor fraud, focusing on: (1) policies and practices for making contractor responsibility determinations and conducting criminal background checks on contractor principals; (2) efforts to suspend, debar, or otherwise prevent firms or contractor principals that have violated relevant federal laws and regulations from receiving government contracts; and (3) Office of Inspector General (OIG) completed contractor fraud investigations involving principals and whether the principals who committed fraud had criminal histories.