The Challenge
If you've ever worked in government finance, you know the feeling: every year, the pressure to protect public money gets heavier. Our client—a large government agency—was fighting a losing battle against fraud. Auditors were buried in paperwork, chasing down endless false alarms, while the real fraudsters slipped through the cracks. The team was frustrated, taxpayers were losing trust, and leadership knew something had to change. But with millions of transactions and a small staff, how do you catch the bad actors without grinding real services to a halt?
Our Approach
We didn't show up with a magic box. We started by listening—sitting down with investigators, compliance folks, and even the people who'd been burned by fraud before. Together, we mapped out the pain points: too many alerts, not enough context, and a process that felt like whack-a-mole. Then, we built a system that could actually help: a fraud detection platform that watched every transaction in real time, flagged the truly odd stuff, and explained why it was suspicious. Instead of drowning in noise, the team could focus on the cases that really mattered. And when the system wasn't sure, it asked for a second opinion—no black boxes, no guesswork.
The Implementation
We rolled out the new platform in the riskiest programs first—the ones that kept everyone up at night. The tech ran side-by-side with the old process, so nobody had to trust it blindly. Investigators poked holes, ran drills, and gave feedback that made the system smarter. We made sure it played nicely with the agency's finance and case management tools, so nobody had to learn a whole new workflow. As the team saw real fraud cases get caught (and false alarms drop), word spread. More departments wanted in.
The Results
- Fraud losses dropped by 44% in the first year—real money, back in the budget.
- Millions in public funds recovered—enough to fund new community programs.
- False positives cut by more than half. Auditors finally had time to chase real leads, not ghosts.
- Investigator productivity up 36%. Less busywork, more impact.
- Public trust in government spending improved. People noticed the difference.
- The team felt proud again—like guardians, not just paper-pushers.
This wasn't just a tech upgrade. It was a culture shift. The fraud team went from overwhelmed to in control. Taxpayers saw results, and the agency's reputation for stewardship soared. The best part? The people doing the work finally felt like heroes, not just hall monitors.
