UHY Partners with Rutgers & ThirdLine to Prevent Fraud in Local Government Vendor Payments with AI

UHY is collaborating with Rutgers University and ThirdLine to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, mistakes, and control failures in local government vendor payments using AI.

Transforming Financial Oversight with Advanced Analytics in the DOGE Era

This partnership is part of a broader mission to equip local governments with tools to streamline processes, improve transparency, and enhance accountability. The initiative aims to empower public sector entities with actionable insights into their financial operations by deploying fraud and outlier detection models, continuous auditing techniques, and internal audit analytics.

“Governments are increasingly facing scrutiny over how they manage public funds,” said David Osborn, CEO and Co-Founder of ThirdLine. “By partnering with Rutgers, we are delivering state-of-the-art solutions not only to detect and prevent fraud and waste but also help governments demonstrate their commitment to fiscal responsibility.”

Building on Rutgers’ Recent Partnership with GFOA

This partnership builds on the momentum of Rutgers’ recent collaboration with the Government Finance Officers Association, which leveraged AI to automate financial data extraction from local government reports, reducing manual efforts and enhancing data accuracy.

“Rutgers is excited to continue to work with local governments and use AI to revolutionize public sector finance,” said Miklos A. Vasarhelyi, Director of the Rutgers Continuous Auditing Lab. “By applying continuous audit principles to vendor payment data, this partnership represents a natural evolution of our work with cities, counties, and school districts. Together, we’re tackling fraud and mistakes in local government payments with a level of precision and efficiency previously unattainable.”

Piloting Innovation in Local Governments

The collaboration will begin with pilot programs in several local governments to refine the statistical models and validate their effectiveness. The project’s findings will lay the groundwork for a broader rollout, making these tools accessible to governments nationwide.

“We’re fortunate to be able to work with ThirdLine and Rutgers on this project.  Local governments need better tools to demonstrate spending transparency to their constituents.  This team will help develop new ways to present how well government monies are being spent,” stated Jack Reagan, Managing Director with UHY.