Two role-playing investigators with bogus documents and a hidden camera walked into Head Start centers across the country to expose fraud and corruption. They got more than they had bargained for, discovering a pattern of rule-bending fraud so shocking it prompted a briefing for President Obama.

Is this the latest James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles sting operation?

Nope. It was the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which used tactics remarkably similar to O’Keefe and Giles, sans the pimp and prostitute costumes.

GAO’s undercover investigation revealed a common practice among Head Start employees: the deliberate disregard — or even outright falsification — of income documentation to pad enrollment. “Now you see it, now you don’t,” said a Head Start employee in New Jersey who “disappeared” $23,000 worth of income for one applicant so that his fictitious child could be enrolled. GAO found Head Start programs were more than willing to help its investigators falsify applications at eight of the 15 centers it visited.

The duo that destroyed ACORN last year caught flak from liberals for their undercover tactics. Media critic Eric Alterman of the Center for American Progress called their investigation “dishonest.” He wrote that O’Keefe and Giles “ignore[d] the rules of honest information gathering and reporting.”

In reality, O’Keefe and Giles’ investigative prowess turned the ACORN story into a national episode of corruption at a government-funded organization. Turns out GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is using essentially the same tactics to expose malfeasance.

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Pelican Institute reporter Steve Beatty has a new story demonstrating that hundreds of jobs allegedly “saved or created” in Louisiana may be incorrect or exaggerated:

The issue of phantom Congressional districts listed in the national stimulus database recently created a stir. But the tally of Louisiana jobs allegedly created or saved by President Obama’s signature domestic policy program raises more serious questions about this database.

A review of the self-reported information may inspire a chuckle or a sneer, particularly when less-than-savvy recipients of federal money don’t know what Congressional district they’re in, or that the state only has seven such districts. That unsophisticated approach made headlines when money was listed as being spent in various districts that just didn’t exist. In the end, though, those reports are likely to be modified and will land in the appropriate district.

A greater concern is the 475 jobs listed as created or saved in Louisiana, even though the related projects aren’t started. And the 171 jobs chalked up when small raises were given to Head Start workers. And the over 100 low-paying work-study jobs on college campuses that count just as much as, say, a full-time architect for a major building program. Other entries indicate what could be an under-reporting of jobs.

These are just some examples of questionable figures in the statewide data analyzed by The Pelican Institute for Public Policy.

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