Nicole Frish

Nicole Frish is the Director, IPRO and is responsible for the oversight and strategic direction of VA’s Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) program. Ms. Frish established the IPRO office in summer of 2015 and has since provided assistance to the Department in ensuring that VA accurately tests and reports improper payments in alignment with the legislative definition, clearly messages obstacles to reducing improper payments, and works with Programs enterprise-wide to ensure that corrective actions are developed and monitored to drive improper payments. IPRO actively manages the annual Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of VA’s IPERA activities, establishes the Department’s timelines for all IPERA activities, and collaborates with other Federal Agencies to identify best practices and lessons learned that can improve VA’s compliance with IPERA.

Previous positions within the Office of Management include serving as the Senior Policy Advisor in both Office of Management and Office of Finance where her responsibilities included support of critical initiatives and review/recommendations of deliverables. In these roles, Ms. Frish obtained an extensive understanding and awareness of all Office of Management activities and how they support program operations throughout the Department.

Prior to working in the VA Office of Management, Ms. Frish worked as an auditor for the VA OIG, the NASA OIG, and the DoD OIG. In her work at these agencies, she made recommendations to improve efficiency and effectiveness in a variety of programs and provided support to fraud investigations, up to including preparing her analyses for use in hearings and ultimate convictions for fraudulent behavior. This background provides Ms. Frish a unique perspective on helping the Department address internal control weaknesses and accurately portray current conditions during audits.