Compliance With Limitations on Payments to Farmers

The administration of the payment limitation program by the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) in Oklahoma was reviewed. For wheat, feed grain, rice, and upland cotton programs in 1980 and 1981, total direct payments are not to exceed $50,000.

At the three county ASCS offices in Oklahoma that were reviewed, it was found that steps are needed to strengthen county office administration of the payment limitation. These offices were making payments to the wrong payees, and, in addition, it was found that the offices were not systematically obtaining all the information needed to determine the makeup of entities receiving deficiency payments; not always identifying those farming entities that needed to be combined for payment limitation purposes; not implementing proper controls to prevent overpayments on county-issued drafts; and not obtaining the best information available before making determinations for payment limitation purposes. The county and State offices were not submitting the required number of payment limitation determinations for higher level review, and interpretations varied as to which determinations were to be submitted for review.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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