(The Center Square) — While business leaders say the Paycheck Protection Program was invaluable to businesses struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s now clear the initiative was ripe for fraud.
“The problem with following the rules is that it often puts you at a disadvantage in a world where fraud and deception seem to be the norm,” Dennis Shirshikov, head of growth at Awning.com and a professor at the City University of New York, wrote in an email to The Center Square. “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough. That seems to be the message from the government these days when it comes to PPP loans.”
PPP fraud has caught the attention of watchdogs at the national level, who recently told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that government agencies did not prevent fraud before doling out pandemic relief aid, including PPP loans.
The feds have charged dozens with lying on PPP loan applications to secure federal money fraudulently; what about the businesses that didn’t lie on loans and didn’t receive money? What does it say to those who followed the rules?
“Fraud, waste, and abuse are rampant in many government programs and Washington needs [to] be a better steward of Americans’ hard-earned money,” U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Georgia, said in a statement to The Center Square.
“Some people tried to defraud the system for their own benefit in a time of need for so many families,” McCormick added. “The original PPP bill needed to have greater guardrails on the verification and distribution process, but today we need to allow the DOJ to investigate fraud and bring these individuals to justice.”
Business leaders recognize that some business owners flouted the laws but say the bulk of the funding went to law-abiding citizens, which helped businesses when they needed it.
“These PPP loans were essential to Georgia’s small businesses at a…
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