FOOD-STAMP, WIC FRAUD RAMPANT, COSTLY

As long as there are governments, there will no doubt be someone trying to dip into the public treasury through cheating and fraud. But with so many federal watchdogs and enforcements agencies, it is alarming to see the extent of the abuses of some U.S. government programs.

The latest revelations involve two nutrition programs whose aim is to help low-income Americans: food stamps and the Women, Infants and Children program commonly known as WIC.

The deceit uncovered by the General Accounting Office and congressional investigators runs deep. We're not talking about a few million dollars -- is even that possible when discussing the federal government? The food stamp program runs $21 billion a year, and WIC costs more than $4 billion.

What recent investigations found was a two-edged problem. Some recipients of food stamps and WIC benefits deliberately falsify information to get the goodies. But a bigger problem may be among retailers who abuse food stamps and WIC coupons, either by converting them to cash -- for pennies on the dollar -- or by overcharging for items purchased with government vouchers.

In either case, the money-grubbing incentive leads to major fraud: some $815 million in food stamps and $225 million in WIC vouchers.

Recipients of food stamps are willing to take far less than face value in cash to support drug habits and, the studies concluded, to purchase guns to be used in the commission of crimes that also support drug dependency.

The retailers who, in effect, become the "banks" for this illegal activity, find it's fairly easy to purchase food stamps for a fraction of their face value and redeem them for full value. In these instances, small, independently owned food outlets barely stock enough food to pass as a grocery store and produce little in the way of actual food sales, for cash or for government vouchers.

The Agriculture Department, which administers the nutrition programs, is stepping up its checks on retailers that take food stamps. But there are some 187,000 such outlets nationwide, and efforts to identify the abusers may be all but impossible.

The sad conclusion may be a hard-nosed attitude in Congress and a decrease in benefits for poor families who legitimately need food.