Financial Management
Challenges Remain in Addressing the Government's Improper Payments Gao ID: GAO-03-750T May 13, 2003The Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, House Committee on Government Reform asked GAO to testify on the Improper Payments Information Act (PL-107-300) and related draft guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and on GAO recommendations to agencies on actions they can take to prevent or reduce improper payments.
Improper payments are a longstanding, widespread, and significant problem in the federal government. Agency financial statements for both fiscal years 2002 and 2001 identified improper payment estimates of approximately $20 billion. OMB recently testified that the amount of improper payments was closer to $35 billion annually for major benefit programs. As significant as these amounts are, they do not represent a true picture of the magnitude of the problem government-wide because they do not consider other significant but smaller programs and other types of agency activities that could result in improper payments. Until recently OMB guidance did not require or offer agencies a comprehensive approach to measuring improper payments, developing and implementing corrective actions, or reporting on the results of the actions taken. Improper payment information varied across agencies and programs and included a mixture of estimated improper payment rates and actual improper payments, and was reported inconsistently in a variety of places, including annual financial statements, performance reports, and the federal budget. None of these reporting mediums provided a comprehensive view of either the scope of the improper payment problem or of individual agency or government efforts to reduce it. We are seeing increased leadership and actions--both from the Congress and the administration--to address the improper payment problem. Two recent pieces of legislation provide an impetus for all agencies to systematically address improper payment activity on an annual basis and to identify and recover contract overpayments. To illustrate this, the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires agency heads to annually review all programs and activities that they administer and identify those susceptible to improper payments. For those with estimates of significant improper payments, the legislation requires further analysis and reporting. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2002 contains a provision that requires agencies entering into sizeable contracts to carry out a cost recovery program for improper payments made to contractors. OMB has taken some actions to address our prior improper payment related recommendations. For example, it has issued draft guidance for agency use in identifying and reporting on improper payments within their programs and activities. Further, preliminary follow up work on our prior recommendations shows a wide range of agency activities regarding improper payment identification and reporting. Some agencies have implemented detailed action plans while others are in the early stages of such work. OMB and the agencies need to continue to work to identify and measure improper payments, set performance goals, implement corrective actions, and report results against those goals.
GAO-03-750T, Financial Management: Challenges Remain in Addressing the Government's Improper Payments
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United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
For Release on Delivery Expected at 2:00 p.m. EDT:
Tuesday, May 13, 2003:
Financial Management:
Challenges Remain in Addressing the Government's Improper Payments:
Statement of McCoy Williams, Director
Financial Management and Assurance:
GAO-03-750T:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-03-750T, a report to Subcommittee on Government
Efficiency and Financial Management, Committee on Government Reform,
House of Representatives
Why GAO Did This Study:
The Subcommittee asked GAO to testify on the Improper Payments
Information Act (PL-107-300) and related draft guidance issued by the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and on GAO recommendations to
agencies on actions they can take to prevent or reduce improper
payments.
What GAO Found:
Improper payments are a longstanding, widespread, and significant
problem in the federal government. Agency financial statements for
both fiscal years 2002 and 2001 identified improper payment estimates
of approximately $20 billion. OMB recently testified that the amount
of improper payments was closer to $35 billion annually for major
benefit programs. As significant as these amounts are, they do not
represent a true picture of the magnitude of the problem
governmentwide because they do not consider other significant but
smaller programs and other types of agency activities that could
result in improper payments.
Until recently OMB guidance did not require or offer agencies a
comprehensive approach to measuring improper payments, developing and
implementing corrective actions, or reporting on the results of the
actions taken. Improper payment information varied across agencies
and programs and included a mixture of estimated improper payment
rates and actual improper payments, and was reported inconsistently in
a variety of places, including annual financial statements,
performance reports, and the federal budget. None of these reporting
mediums provided a comprehensive view of either the scope of the
improper payment problem or of individual agency or government efforts
to reduce it.
We are seeing increased leadership and actions”both from the Congress
and the administration”to address the improper payment problem.
Two recent pieces of legislation provide an impetus for all agencies
to systematically address improper payment activity on an annual basis
and to identify and recover contract overpayments. To illustrate
this, the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires agency
heads to annually review all programs and activities that they
administer and identify those susceptible to improper payments. For
those with estimates of significant improper payments, the legislation
requires further analysis and reporting. The National Defense
Authorization Act for fiscal year 2002 contains a provision that
requires agencies entering into sizeable contracts to carry out a cost
recovery program for improper payments made to contractors.
OMB has taken some actions to address our prior improper payment-
related recommendations. For example, it has issued draft guidance
for agency use in identifying and reporting on improper payments
within their programs and activities. Further, preliminary follow up
work on our prior recommendations shows a wide range of agency
activities regarding improper payment identification and reporting.
Some agencies have implemented detailed action plans while others are
in the early stages of such work. OMB and the agencies need to
continue to work to identify and measure improper payments, set
performance goals, implement corrective actions, and report results
against those goals.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-750T.
To view the full report, including the scope
and methodology, click on the link above.
For more information, contact McCoy Williams at 202-512-6906 or
williamsm1@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the governmentwide improper
payment problem. Specifically, I will discuss leadership actions taken
by the Congress and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
address this problem, and I will highlight the results of our work in
this area over the past few years that address actions agencies can
undertake to prevent or reduce improper payments.
In general, improper payments are payments the government made in error
and often result from a lack of or inadequate systems of internal
controls. We use the term improper payments to include inadvertent
errors such as duplicate payments and miscalculations; payments for
unsupported or inadequately supported claims, payments for services not
rendered, payments to ineligible beneficiaries, and payments resulting
from fraud and abuse by program participants and/or federal employees.
Because improper payments are a longstanding, widespread, and
significant problem in the federal government, few would argue that the
goal of reducing them is not a worthy one. As we testified before this
subcommittee on April 8, 2003,[Footnote 1] improper payment estimates
disclosed in agency financial statements totaled approximately $20
billion each year for both fiscal years 2002 and 2001. As significant
as these amounts are, they do not present a true picture of the
magnitude of the problem governmentwide. OMB recently estimated the
amount of improper payments at about $35 billion annually. While either
of these figures represent a considerable amount of wasted taxpayer
dollars, the scope of the problem is likely greater because most
agencies have not yet estimated or publicly reported the magnitude of
improper payments in their programs and activities.
The risk of improper payments and the government's ability to prevent
them has important long-term implications. As the baby boom generation
leaves the workforce, spending pressures will grow rapidly due to
increased costs of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social
Security. Other federal expenditures are also likely to increase. These
spending pressures and the increased size of federal programs all but
guarantee that, absent improvement in internal controls and other
proactive actions, the risk of even more improper payments will exist.
Our work has demonstrated that attacking improper payment problems
requires a strategy appropriate to the organization involved and its
particular risks, including a consideration of the legal requirements
surrounding security and privacy issues. Our findings in this area have
resulted in the identification of strategies to address improper
payments and in governmentwide recommendations for proactive leadership
at the highest levels of government, in addition to specific procedures
designed to help agencies better identify, measure, reduce, and report
their improper payments.
In October 2001, we issued an executive guide that provided information
on strategies used successfully by public and private sector
organizations to address their improper payment problems.[Footnote 2]
We found that the entities using these best practices shared a common
focus of improving the internal control system. The components of this
control system and a brief definition of each follows.
* Control environment--creating a culture of accountability by
establishing a positive and supportive attitude toward improvement and
the achievement of established program outcomes.
* Risk assessment--performing comprehensive reviews and analyses of
program operations to determine if risks exist and the nature and
extent of the risks identified.
* Control activities--taking actions to address identified risk areas
and help ensure that management's decisions and plans are carried out
and program objectives are met.
* Information and communications--using and sharing relevant, reliable,
and timely financial and nonfinancial information in managing improper
payment related activities.
* Monitoring--tracking improvement initiatives, over time, and
identifying additional actions needed to further improve program
efficiency and effectiveness.
Most recently, in a report issued last August,[Footnote 3] we pointed
out that existing guidance did not require or offer agencies a
comprehensive approach to measuring improper payments, developing and
implementing corrective actions, or reporting on the results of the
actions taken. Improper payment information varied across agencies and
programs and included a mixture of estimated improper payment rates and
actual improper payments. Moreover, the information was inconsistently
reported in a variety of places, including annual financial statements,
performance plans, and the federal budget. None of these reporting
mediums provided a comprehensive view of either the scope of the
improper payment problem or of individual agency or governmentwide
efforts to reduce it. As such, there is inadequate substantive
information for use in establishing (1) a baseline measure of the
extent of improper payments, (2) appropriate response levels to correct
improper payment problems, and (3) responsibility--holding
organizations and/or individuals accountable for performance and
results.
As a result of these findings, we recommended that federal executive
branch agencies assign responsibilities for taking actions to minimize
improper payments and that OMB assist agencies in developing methods to
identify and implement those actions. We also presented matters for
congressional consideration to assist agencies in addressing barriers
to actions to better manage efforts to reduce improper payments and to
help them with improvement efforts.
We are seeing important leadership and action--both from the Congress
and from the administration--to address the improper payment problem.
Today I will highlight these actions and provide my perspective as to
their potential impact. I will also discuss our intent to follow up
with the 24 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Act agencies on our previous
recommendations that address actions agencies can take to prevent and
reduce improper payments.
Legislation Mandates Agency Actions to Identify and Act on Improper
Payment Problems:
Two recent pieces of legislation--the Improper Payments Information Act
of 2002[Footnote 4], and Section 831 of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002[Footnote 5]--provide an impetus
for all agencies to systematically address improper payment activity
annually, and to identify and recover contract overpayments.
Improper Payments Act:
The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, that this subcommittee
sponsored, contains stringent requirements in the areas of improper
payment review and reporting. Agency heads are to annually review all
programs and activities that they administer and identify those that
may be susceptible to improper payments. Across-the-board
implementation of this provision will significantly increase the number
of agencies analyzing their programs and activities for improper
payments and coincides with our recommendation that the 24 CFO Act
agencies assign responsibility for establishing procedures for
assessing agency and program risks of improper payments.
Once agencies identify their programs that are susceptible to
significant improper payments, the legislation requires agencies to
estimate the annual amount of improper payments in those programs and
activities. For programs for which estimated improper payments exceed
$10 million, agencies are to report to the Congress on actions they are
taking to reduce those errors. The report will also include a
discussion of the causes of the improper payments identified, actions
taken to correct those causes, and the results of the actions taken to
address those causes. The provisions of this legislation coincide with
our recommendation that CFO Act agencies take actions to reduce
improper payments and report to the Congress, OMB, and the agency head
on the progress made in achieving improper payment reduction targets
and future action plans for controlling improper payments.
The law further requires OMB to prescribe agency guidance to implement
the requirements of the act. For years, we have recommended that OMB
develop and issue guidance to federal executive agencies to assist them
in developing and implementing a methodology for annually estimating
and reporting improper payments, and for developing goals and
strategies to address improper payments. I will discuss OMB's actions
in this area later in my statement.
Recovery Auditing Legislation:
Our October 2001 executive guide on improper payments recognized that
some improper payments are inevitable and identified and described
improper payment detection activities including recovery auditing.
Recovery auditing entails examining payment file information to
identify possible duplicate or erroneous payments and taking recovery
action. Our guide suggested that the techniques used in recovery
auditing could be used more in the federal government not only to
identify improper payments already made, but also to analyze records
prior to payment to prevent improper payments before they occur. In our
opinion, it is both faster and cheaper to proactively identify and
prevent potential improper payments than to try to detect such errors
and collect them after the fact.
Section 831 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2002 contains a provision that requires agencies entering into
contracts with costs exceeding $500 million annually to have cost-
effective programs for identifying errors in paying contractors and for
recovering amounts erroneously paid. The legislation further states
that a required element of such a program is the use of recovery audits
and recovery activities. The law authorizes agencies to retain
recovered funds to cover in-house administrative costs as well as to
pay contractors, such as collection agencies. Any residual recoveries,
net of these program costs, may be credited back to the original
appropriation, subject to restrictions as described in the legislation.
With the passage of this law, the Congress has removed multiple
barriers and granted agencies a much needed incentive for identifying
and reducing their improper payments, in addition to recovering those
improper payments that slip through agency prepayment controls. The
techniques used in recovery auditing (such as examining payment file
information to identify duplicate payments or calculation errors) offer
the opportunity for identifying weaknesses in agency internal controls,
which can then be modified or upgraded to be more effective in
preventing improper payments before they occur. Further, accurate
assignment of costs and a functioning cost accounting system to track
those costs can assist agency management by providing the information
needed to identify agency and contractor expenses reimbursable under
this legislation.
OMB's Actions to Address Improper Payments:
OMB's role in managing, implementing, and overseeing governmentwide
administrative policy, its interagency perspective, and its leadership
role on the various interagency councils make it a key player in the
government's effort to reduce improper payments. I would like to
briefly discuss two actions--one legislatively and the other
administratively driven.
In the legislative area, OMB recently issued draft guidance on
implementation of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 for
agency comment. In this guidance, OMB addressed the specific reporting
requirements provided by the act and laid out the steps necessary for
agencies to meet those requirements. For example, the draft guidance
calculates annual improper payments as the gross total of both over-and
under-payments, and sets statistical sampling confidence and precision
levels for estimating those payments. It also requires agencies with
estimated improper payments in any program or activity exceeding $10
million to include, along with the estimated amount, a discussion of
the amount of actual improper payments the agency expects to recover
and how it will go about recovering them in the Management Discussion
and Analysis section of their annual Performance and Accountability
Report. These actions will help ensure transparency in reporting for
those agencies with programs and activities with significant risks for
improper payments.
On the administrative side, the President's Management Agenda has
identified improper payments as a key element in the administration's
initiative to improve financial performance throughout the federal
government--one of five governmentwide initiatives that the Agenda
addressed. As described in the Agenda, OMB will work with agencies to
establish goals to reduce improper payments for each program over $2
billion. In the past, agencies' financial statements contained a mix of
estimated improper payment rates and actually identified improper
payments--this was for those agencies that had, in fact, reported
improper payments. OMB now requires agencies to provide an improper
payment rate based on a statistical sample projected to the universe of
payments made. It revised the guidance in its Circular A-11 to require
agencies to distinguish between overpayments, underpayments, and total
improper payments, and to define the methodology used to develop their
error rate. The revision was intended to ensure consistency in the
error rates reported by the agencies. The Circular requires agencies to
report this information with their initial budget submissions and
prohibits agencies from publicly disclosing these submissions. We have
stated in the past and continue to maintain that this information
should be in the public domain since it is necessary to enable
oversight and monitoring by interested parties, including the Congress
and the public.
Our August 2002 report on improper payments included recommendations to
OMB designed to assist agencies with challenges in identifying and
measuring their improper payments, setting performance goals,
implementing corrective actions, and reporting the results against the
goals. OMB has taken some actions to address these recommendations. For
example, in October 2002 testimony before this committee, it addressed
statutory roadblocks faced by the departments of Labor (Labor),
Education (Education), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in
gaining access to existing information that those agencies could use in
verifying the employment status and income of applicants.[Footnote 6]
OMB testified that it had proposed legislation to eliminate the data-
sharing barriers at Labor and Education, and that it was in the process
of proposing legislation that would assist HUD in accessing much needed
data that already exists at the Department of Health and Human
Services. While this is a start, identifying and mitigating or
eliminating barriers must be an ongoing process as additional agencies
begin to address their improper payments and identify additional
barriers that restrict their actions to reduce or eliminate improper
payments. OMB's efforts in working with the Congress and federal
agencies to ensure successful implementation of the provisions of the
Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 and other legislation and
administrative actions that can impact improper payments are critical
to the governmentwide effort to reduce improper payments and facilitate
the implementation of our recommendations.
OMB is providing additional leadership through a joint CFO Council and
President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) workgroup--the
Improper and Erroneous Payments Work Group--to assist agencies in
identifying and reducing erroneous payments and to produce
documentation that would be meaningful, applied to agencies. The
workgroup surveyed agencies concerning the existing use of improper
payment indicators and benchmarks, analyzed survey responses, and
publicly released lists of indicators and techniques agencies currently
use to identify improper payments.
Limited Information Is Available on Improper Payments at Federal
Agencies:
As noted in our prior reports and testimonies on this topic, there is
no clear picture on the extent of the improper payment problem, only
that it is worse than what is now acknowledged. Relatively few federal
agencies and their components publicly report improper payment
information such as improper payment rates, causes, and strategies for
better managing their programs to reduce or eliminate these payments.
In reviewing fiscal year 2001 agency and component financial statements
of the 24 CFO Act agencies, we found references to improper payments in
just 10 agencies in 17 agency programs. This information increased to
17 agencies and 27 programs in fiscal year 2002 agency financial
statements. Several of the 17 agencies that acknowledged the existence
of improper payments did not present information on the amounts of
those payments. While the fiscal year 2002 information is an
improvement over fiscal year 2001 in terms of agencies acknowledging
improper payments, merely acknowledging that improper payments exist is
simply not enough. It is essential for agencies to develop appropriate
methodologies for identifying and measuring those payments, identify
cost-effective actions to correct them, implement actions to reduce or
eliminate improper payments in their programs and activities, and
periodically report to agency managers, the Congress, and the public,
through publicly available documents.
In our August 2002 report, we made a recommendation to all 24 CFO Act
agencies to assign responsibility to a senior agency official for
assessing risks, taking actions to reduce, and reporting the results on
those actions on agency improper payments. The report described
specific actions that we feel are an integral part of that
responsibility. As a result of preliminary information received from
those agencies, we have found that agencies have begun to assign
responsibility to lead and coordinate actions to reduce improper
payments. Some agencies have developed detailed action plans to
determine the nature and extent of improper payments. Some have set
target goals for improper payment rates and have reported progress in
their annual accountability reports. For other agencies, methodologies
for identifying risks, determining the nature and extent of improper
payments, and developing corrective actions are in the early stages of
implementation. In ongoing work, we are meeting with officials from the
24 CFO Act agencies to discuss their progress in implementing our
recommendations and OMB's draft guidance on implementing the Improper
Payments Information Act of 2002.
In closing, I want to emphasize our commitment to continuing our work
with the Congress, the administration, and federal agencies to ensure
that improper payments are fully addressed governmentwide, and that
actions are taken to reduce or eliminate the government's
vulnerabilities to the significant problem of improper payments. As I
stated earlier, recent legislation and other actions have brought the
government's improper payment problems to the forefront. Implementing
the legislative provisions and other actions is a shared responsibility
that will require continued strong support and active and cooperative
involvement from the Congress, the administration, and agency
management. Effective implementation of the Improper Payments
Information Act of 2002 and recovery auditing should help resolve these
problems. Along these lines, OMB needs to continue to work with
agencies and groups like the CFO-PCIE Erroneous and Improper Payments
Workgroup to address challenges in identifying and measuring their
improper payments, setting performance goals, implementing corrective
actions, and reporting the results against the goals. Further, agency
management must work diligently to establish an environment in which
improper payments are not acceptable business practices, evaluate
program and activity risks for improper payments, identify and
implement appropriate corrective actions, and openly report the
progress made in reducing improper payments.
Mr. Chairman, this completes my prepared statement. I would be happy to
respond to any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may
have at this time.
Contact and Acknowledgements:
For information about this statement, please contact McCoy Williams,
Director, Financial Management and Assurance, at (202) 512-6906 or at
williamsm1@gao.gov. Individuals who made key contributions to this
testimony include Tom Broderick, Bonnie McEwan, and Donell Ries.
Numerous other individuals made contributions to the GAO reports cited
in this testimony.
[End of section]
Related GAO Products:
Financial Management: Coordinated Approach Needed to Address the
Government's Improper Payments Problems. GAO-02-749. Washington, D.C.:
August 9, 2002.
Financial Management: Improper Payments Reported in Fiscal Year 2000
Financial Statements. GAO-02-131R. Washington, D.C.: November 2, 2001.
Executive Guide: Strategies to Manage Improper Payments, Learning From
Public and Private Sector Organizations. GAO-02-69G. Washington, D.C.:
October 2001.
Financial Management: Billions in Improper Payments Continue to Require
Attention. GAO-01-44. Washington, D.C.: October 27, 2000.
FOOTNOTES
[1] U.S. General Accounting Office, Fiscal Year 2002 U.S. Government
Financial Statements: Sustained Leadership and Oversight Needed for
Effective Implementation of Financial Management Reform, GAO-03-572T
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 8, 2003).
[2] U.S. General Accounting Office, Strategies to Manage Improper
Payments: Learning From Public and Private Sector Organizations,
GAO-02-69G (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 2001).
[3] U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Management: Coordinated
Approach Needed to Address the Government's Improper Payments Problems,
GAO-02-749 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 9, 2002).
[4] Pub. L. No. 107-300, 116 Stat. 2350, (2002).
[5] Pub. L. No. 107-107, 115 Stat. 1012, 1186, (2001).
[6] Office of Management and Budget, Testimony of the Honorable Mark W.
Everson, Deputy Director for Management, before the Subcommittee on
Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental
Relations, Committee on Government Reform, (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 3,
2002).
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