Federal agencies and Congress have fully or partially addressed about three-fourths of concerns that GAO has raised since 2011 about duplication, overlap and fragmentation among federal programs, GAO has said. However, some recommendations dating back that far remain open and the audit agency’s new annual report has added more.
GAO estimated that the steps taken so far have achieved $178 billion in financial benefits–through reduced spending or increased revenue–in programs ranging from farm program payments to IT procurement and from tax enforcement to consolidation of federal data centers.
It further estimates that “tens of billions more dollars could be saved by fully implementing our open actions.” Among the longest-standing unresolved concerns are improper payments of Social Security benefits and in various other programs, overhead at DoD, and weapons systems acquisition
The latest report identifies 68 actions that could be taken in 23 additional areas, plus seven new actions that could be taken in problem areas previously identified, some of them specific to certain agencies and others applying across government. Those include use of duplicative identity theft services after data breaches; security of federal facilities; and management of federal fleet vehicles.
