Jane Edwards
Mitre has introduced a prize competition that seeks to engage entrepreneurs, college students and representatives from government and nonprofit organizations to help address improper payments in federal programs.
The Strengthening Eligibility Verification Challenge is a two-month-long contest that aims to find new ways to validate the eligibility of individuals who are applying for federal benefit initiatives, Mitre said Monday.
Federal spending on improper payments reached approximately $141 billion in 2017, an increase of 33 percent since 2013.
“Like the government, MITRE believes ‘challenges’ are a good way to quickly attract innovative ideas from people around the world to address tough problems — such as improper payments. We’re working closely with numerous federal agencies to educate challenge participants about the problem so that they can develop better ways to verify eligibility and save the government billions of dollars each year,” Gordon Milbourn, Mitre’s improper payment portfolio leader, told ExecutiveBiz Wednesday.
Mitre intends to officially start the challenge in October and name the winners in January.
The research nonprofit organization will evaluate submissions based on the design, feasibility and originality of the proposed platform and will award as much as $50,000 to the winning teams.
Some of the agencies that have partnered with Mitre on the challenge include the Departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture.
