While the federal government continues to make progress addressing new requirements under the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, significant challenges remain in achieving its goals, the Government Accountability Office has said.
Fiscal 2005 was the second year agencies had to report improper payment information under the act, and it has increased the visibility over improper payments, but the 33 fiscal 2005 performance and accountability reports GAO looked at showed that some agencies still need to put in place systematic methods for reviewing all programs and activities, according to GAO-06-581T.
It said agencies have not identified all programs susceptible to significant improper payments or have not annually estimated improper payments for their susceptible programs as required by the act, and said the full magnitude of the problem remains unknown.
Agency auditors have identified major management challenges related to agencies’ improper payments estimating methodologies and significant internal control weaknesses for programs susceptible to significant improper payments, GAO said.
It said that of the 33 agencies it reviewed, 18 reported over $38 billion in improper payments in 57 programs, representing a $7 billion — or 16 percent — decrease in the amount of improper payments reported by 17 agencies in fiscal year 2004.
However, it noted that the total improper payments estimate does not include seven major agency programs with outlays totaling about $228 billion.
