Keynote Presentation

Ken Dieffenbach
Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
U.S. Department of Energy OIG

Ken Dieffenbach serves as the Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Department of Energy OIG. He began his federal law enforcement career in 1996 with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. From 2003 to 2021, he served in various special agent roles at the U.S. Department of Justice OIG. In his current role, he works with a team of over 250 special agents, auditors, data scientists, attorneys, inspectors, and other professionals to help tackle fraud risks in U.S. Department of Energy programs and operations. In his spare time, Ken enjoys long walks and talking about fraud risks with anyone who will listen. 

Keynote Presentation
Grants Compliance: It Takes a (Very Large and Very Complicated) Village 

Virtually everyone agrees that it is important to mitigate fraud and other compliance risks in grant programs. But how? In this session we will explore the grant oversight framework including the roles and responsibilities of the inspectors general, grantor agencies, grantees, and other stakeholders. We’ll discuss various oversight and compliance tools and strategies, as well as practical steps each attendee can take to directly contribute to a more robust and resilient framework
     
Learning objectives:

• Understand the mission and focus of the federal inspector general community.

• Be aware of the current “hot” grant-specific oversight issues such as data analytics, the mandatory disclosure rule, and whistleblower retaliation prohibitions.

• Be better equipped, as a grants community, to help prevent and mitigate grant fraud and other compliance issues through risk assessments, fraud awareness training, proactive disclosures, strong program design, increased awareness of certain PRAC and OIG products, the use of integrity monitoring and third-party payors, and other measures.  

• Be reminded of the critically important roles all stakeholders play in mitigating grant fraud and other compliance risks, to include ways to influence others to recognize the importance of compliance.