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Title 5 — Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-73

§4512 Agency awards for cost savings disclosures

Title 5 › Part PART III— - EMPLOYEES › Subpart Subpart C— - Employee Performance › Chapter CHAPTER 45— - INCENTIVE AWARDS › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - AWARDS FOR COST SAVINGS DISCLOSURES › § 4512

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Allows the Inspector General, or another agency employee they pick, to give cash awards to agency workers whose reports of fraud, waste, or mismanagement actually save the agency money. Awards cannot exceed $10,000 or 1% of the savings, whichever is less. If there is no Inspector General, the agency head must pick someone to make and give these awards.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §4512

Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Inspector General of an agency, or any other agency employee designated under subsection (b), may pay a cash award to any employee of such agency whose disclosure of fraud, waste, or mismanagement to the Inspector General of the agency, or to such other designated agency employee, has resulted in cost savings for the agency. The amount of an award under this section may not exceed the lesser of—
(1)$10,000; or
(2)an amount equal to 1 percent of the agency’s cost savings which the Inspector General, or other employee designated under subsection (b), determines to be the total savings attributable to the employee’s disclosure.
(b)In the case of an agency for which there is no Inspector General, the head of the agency shall designate an agency employee who shall have the authority to make the determinations and grant the awards permitted under this section.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1985—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 99–145 struck out subsec. (c) which provided that the Inspector General, or other employee designated under subsection (b), shall submit to the Comptroller General documentation substantiating any award made under this section and that the Comptroller General shall, from time to time, review awards made under this section and procedures used in making such awards to verify the cost savings for which the awards were made.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 1, 1981, see section 1703(c) of Pub. L. 97–35, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1981 Amendment note under section 4501 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 4512

Title 5 — Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73