We have all heard many stories of waste and corruption in the federal government, and how federal worker employees unions get politicians elected in exchange for higher pay and less work… all at our expense. And this has been going on for so long that it has spiraled to insane levels. Simple forms of accountability like typing a 10 minute email saying the five things you did this week are now being treated like people are being water boarded.
As someone who founded and built many teams of people and currently manages 250+, I can tell you that sometimes it is best to fire people and start over. It is good for those people who have become entrenched in a position where they do little or nothing and need a change of scenery to become productive again, and it is best for the organization to start fresh.
Your suggestion is reasonable that we investigate and prosecute fraud… but in many cases of just plain laziness and doing no work, the best solution is to fire people.
The best way to keep our government accountable is to keep it local and keep it small. Our founders were right to delegate most of the power to the states and try to keep the federal government very small and weak, even to the point of specifically banning federal militaries in favor of state and local militaries that could work together in defense if needed. But once people get power in federal government, they never let it go and they keep reaching for more and more. This is why we need wholesale cleaning out of the bureaucracy.