Review of the Ongoing Los Angeles County Fingerprinting Demonstration Project

This final report presents the results of our review of a 3-year (April 1994 through March 1997) demonstration project in Los Angeles County named the Automated Fingerprint Image Reporting and Match System (AFIRM). The primary purpose of the project is to detect and deter multiple case fraud in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in a cost-effective manner. Our review showed that, to date, the AFIRM project is inconclusive as to how well fingerprinting works in combating multiple case fraud. However, the project has had a significant impact in removing cases from the AFDC roles, with savings estimated to be in excess of the $20.6 million approved for operating the project. However, most of these savings were not attributable to the detection and deterrence of multiple case fraud, but to other types of fraud and to the termination of cases due to the failure of recipients to keep interview appointments. We make no recommendations in our report, but are providing the report to ACF for their use in making future decisions involving the use of automated fingerprinting technology in the AFDC program.