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Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-110

§4512 Agency Awards for Cost Savings Disclosures

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

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

An agency’s Inspector General, or another employee the agency picks, may give a cash award to an agency worker whose report of fraud, waste, or mismanagement produced cost savings. The award can’t be more than the lesser of $10,000 or 1 percent of the savings the Inspector General or designee says came from the report. The reviewer may count projected savings in later fiscal years when calculating the 1 percent. If an agency has no Inspector General, the agency head must name an employee who can decide and grant 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.
For purposes of paragraph (2), the Inspector General or other designated employee may take into account agency cost savings projected for subsequent fiscal years which will be attributable to such 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

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110