Improper payments related to pandemic relief programs have been a focus of special attention from Capitol Hill and oversight bodies such as the GAO. Image: ungvar/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe latest data on improper payments presents a mixed picture, with the overall rate rising from 5.12 to 5.43 percent in fiscal 2023, but OMB said that was mainly due to an increase in payments with insufficient documentation and not necessarily an indicator of more overpayments or fraud.
Under the terminology used, improper payments can include underpayments as well as overpayments, plus payments that are correct but are not properly documented and therefore “are not a measure of fraudulent payments, nor are they a measure of monetary losses to taxpayers,” OMB said in a posting.
“Even in cases where improper payments are subsequently recovered, they are still counted as improper,” it added.
Improper payments related to pandemic relief programs have been a focus of special attention from Capitol Hill and oversight bodies such as the GAO, individual agency inspectors general and a central pandemic spending oversight council.
OMB said that apart from three of those programs—the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, the Paycheck Protection Program, and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program—the improper payment rate would be 4.03 percent, which would be the lowest since 2014. In addition, it said, the report for 2023 for the first time reflects results under the first of those programs, even though most of its payments were made in 2020.
It also cited “particularly notable” improvements in the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program at CMS, down by about 7 and 14 percent, respectively, in 2023.
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