GAO-24-106927: Improper Payments: Information on Agencies' Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates
Summary
GAO-24-106927, Improper Payments: Information on Agencies' Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates, a Government Accountability Office Q&A report to the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, dated March 26, 2024. It is GAO's fifth quarterly report under House Report 117-389. It states that federal agencies estimated a total of $236 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2023, a decrease of about $11 billion from the prior fiscal year, and that about $175 billion (or 74 percent) were overpayments. In fiscal year 2022, 14 of the 24 CFO Act agencies fully complied with applicable improper payment criteria, as reported by their inspectors general.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“GAO-24-106927: Improper Payments: Information on Agencies' Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates.”
Original at www.gao.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/gao-24-106927-improper-payments-information-on-agencies-fiscal-year-20-2ee300d92b/
, SHA-256 03f02c74352764b34f9110e671c2dee78e910e0bf08d6da02a070b08167b1798.Full text
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Improper Payments: Information on Agencies’
Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates
GAO-24-106927
Q&A Report to the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, Committee on Appropriations, House of
Representatives
March 26, 2024
Why This Matters Improper payments—those that should not have been made or were made in the
incorrect amount—have consistently been a government-wide issue. Since fiscal
year 2003, cumulative improper payment estimates by executive branch
agencies have totaled about $2.7 trillion. Reducing improper payments is critical
to safeguarding federal funds.
We have reported on improper payments in our audit reports on the U.S.
government’s consolidated financial statements since fiscal year 1997. We have
found that these payments represent a material deficiency or weakness in
internal controls. Specifically, we have noted that the federal government is
unable to determine the full extent of its improper payments or to reasonably
assure that appropriate actions are taken to reduce them.
House Report 117-389, which accompanied the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Act, 2023, includes a provision for GAO to provide quarterly
reports on improper payments. This is our fifth such report, and it provides an
overview of federal agencies’ improper payment estimates for fiscal year 2023.
Additionally, we discuss agencies’ compliance with legal requirements for
reporting and managing improper payments.
Key Takeaways • In fiscal year 2023, federal agencies estimated a total of $236 billion in
improper payments, a decrease of about $11 billion from the prior fiscal year.
About $175 billion (or 74 percent) of these improper payments were
overpayments.
• The total fiscal year 2023 improper payment estimate does not include some
programs that agencies have determined are susceptible to significant
improper payments, such as the Department of Health and Humans Services’
(HHS) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
• In fiscal year 2022, 14 of the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial
Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act) fully complied with applicable improper
payment criteria, as reported by their agency inspectors general.
What are the federal Agencies reported about $236 billion in improper payment estimates for fiscal
agencies’ estimates for year 2023. 1 This amount represents a decrease of about $11 billion from the
fiscal year 2023 fiscal year 2022 estimate (see fig. 1).
improper payments?
Page 1 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Figure 1: Total Reported Executive Agency Improper Payment Estimates, Fiscal Years 2003–2023
Note: Prior year improper payment estimates have not been adjusted for inflation.
Our analysis of agency data shows that 14 agencies reported improper payment
estimates across 71 programs. As shown in figure 2, about 79 percent ($186
billion) of the government-wide total of estimated improper payments that
agencies reported for fiscal year 2023 is concentrated in five program areas:
• HHS’s Medicare, comprising three programs ($51 billion); 2
• HHS’s Medicaid ($50 billion);
• the Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance - Federal Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance ($44 billion);
• the Department of the Treasury’s Earned Income Tax Credit ($22 billion);
and
• the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program
Loan Forgiveness ($19 billion).
Page 2 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Figure 2: Programs Reporting the Largest Percentage of Government-Wide Improper
Payments Estimates for Fiscal Year 2023
As seen in figure 3, most of the total $236 billion in government-wide improper
payment estimates for fiscal year 2023 consisted of overpayments. The
remaining improper payments consisted of underpayments, unknown payments,
and technically improper payments. 3
Figure 3: Agencies’ Fiscal Year 2023 Reported Estimated Improper Payments by Type
It should be noted that the fiscal year 2023 improper payment estimates do not
include certain programs that agencies have determined are susceptible to
significant improper payments. As a result, the government-wide total potentially
does not represent the full extent of improper payments. For example, the $236
billion total does not include HHS’s TANF program. HHS reported that it does not
have the authority to obtain the information it needs to estimate or report
improper payment amounts for this program. In April 2022, we recommended
that Congress consider providing HHS the authority to require states to report the
data the agency needs to estimate and report on improper payments for TANF. 4
As of February 2024, Congress has not acted on this recommendation.
Page 3 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
How many programs For fiscal year 2023, nine federal programs reported improper payment estimates
reported improper of $5 billion or more (see table 1).
payment amounts of at
Table 1: Federal Programs Reporting Annual Estimated Improper Payment Amounts of at
least $5 billion? Least $5 Billion for Fiscal Year 2023
Estimated
improper
payment amount
(dollars in
Agency Program name billions)
Department of Health and
Medicaid $50
Human Services
Department of Labor Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance 44
Department of Health and
Medicare Fee-for-Service 31
Human Services
Department of the
Earned Income Tax Credit 22
Treasury
Small Business
Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness 19
Administration
Department of Health and
Medicare Advantage (Part C) 17
Human Services
Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 9
Social Security
Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance 8
Administration
Social Security
Supplemental Security Income 5
Administration
Source: GAO analysis of Office of Management and Budget PaymentAccuracy.gov data. | GAO-24-106927
How many programs For fiscal year 2023, 16 federal programs reported improper payment rate
reported improper estimates of at least 10 percent (see table 2).
payment rates of at
least 10 percent?
Page 4 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Table 2: Federal Programs Reporting Annual Estimated Improper Payment Rates Greater
Than 10 Percent for Fiscal Year 2023
Estimated
improper payment
Agency Program name rate (percent)
Small Business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Guaranty
49.1
Administration Purchasesa
Small Business
PPP Loan Forgivenessa 40.5
Administration
Department of Farm Service Agency Emergency Conservation Program
40.4
Agriculture – Disasters
Department of
Purchased Long-Term Services and Supports 38.7
Veterans Affairs
Department of Labor Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance 35.9
Department of the
Earned Income Tax Credit 33.5
Treasury
Department of the
American Opportunity Tax Credit 31.6
Treasury
Department of the
Refundable Premium Assistance Tax Credit 26.0
Treasury
Department of Labor Federal State Unemployment Insurance 16.5
Corporation for
National and Senior Companion Program 15.6
Community Service
Department of the
Additional Child Tax Credit 14.5
Treasury
Department of Farm Service Agency Livestock Forage Disaster
13.7
Agriculture Program
Department of
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Children’s
Health and Human 12.8
Health Insurance Program
Services
Department of
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 11.5
Agriculture
Department of
Pension 10.9
Veterans Affairs
Department of
Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program 10.5
Agriculture
Source: GAO analysis of Office of Management and Budget PaymentAccuracy.gov data. | GAO-24-106927
a
In fiscal year 2023, the Small Business Administration separated the PPP into three reporting categories—PPP
Approvals, PPP Purchases, and PPP Forgiveness. PPP Approvals did not have a population in fiscal year 2023
for reporting purposes and last reported in fiscal year 2022.
How many programs Our analysis of PaymentAccuracy.gov data found that eight programs
reported substantial experienced substantial declines in reported estimated improper payments for
declines in improper fiscal year 2023 (see table 3). 5 Agencies attributed these declines to factors such
payments? as terminating certain programs and implementing mitigation strategies. In
addition, variability arising from the improper payment estimation process could
potentially explain a portion of the reported declines.
Page 5 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Table 3: Federal Programs with Substantial Declines in Estimated Improper Payments from
Fiscal Years 2022 to 2023
Decrease
Estimated in rate
fiscal year Decrease from fiscal
2023 in amount year 2022
improper from fiscal (net
payments (in year 2022 percentage Agency-cited reason for
Agency/program billions) (in billions) points) decrease
Department of $50 $30 7.0 Improved state compliance and
Health and Human COVID-19 review flexibilitiesa
Services –
Medicaid
Small Business N/A $29 4.2 Termination of program
Administration –
Paycheck
Protection
Program Loan
Approvals
Department of $5 $14 5.7 Termination of two pandemic
Labor – Federal unemployment insurance
State programs
Unemployment
Insurance
Department of $0 $6 12.1 Implementation of effective
Education – mitigation strategies, including
Education providing sufficient time to obtain
Stabilization Fund supporting documentation and
offering targeted technical
assistance
Department of $0 $5 35.7 Implementation of effective
Education – Title I mitigation strategies, including
Grants to Local providing sufficient time to obtain
Educational supporting documentation and
Agencies offering targeted technical
assistance
Small Business $3 $4 (3.7)b Winding down of program as
Administration – agency stopped accepting
COVID-19 applications and additional
Economic Injury requests for funds
Disaster Loan
Department of $0 $3 26.7 Implementation of effective
Education – mitigation strategies, including
Special Education providing sufficient time to obtain
Grants to States supporting documentation and
offering targeted technical
assistance
Source: GAO analysis of Office of Management and Budget PaymentAccuracy.gov data and agency financial reports. | GAO-24-106927
a
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, states were given certain flexibilities during
COVID-19 which impacted their improper payment reviews, such as suspending eligibility determinations and
reducing requirements for provider enrollment and revalidations.
b
Agency reported decrease in estimated improper payment amount because of decrease in outlays, despite the
increase in improper payment rate.
Page 6 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
How many programs According to the PaymentAccuracy.gov data that we analyzed, five programs
reported substantial experienced substantial increases in reported estimated improper payments for
increases in improper fiscal year 2023 (see table 4). Agencies cited two reasons for these increases:
payments? not reporting improper payments estimates for the prior fiscal year and making
changes in estimation methodology. In addition, variability arising from the
improper payment estimation process could potentially explain a portion of the
reported increases.
Table 4: Federal Programs with Substantial Increases in Estimated Improper Payments from
Fiscal Years 2022 to 2023
Estimated Increase in
fiscal year Increase in rate from
2023 amount from fiscal year
improper fiscal year 2022 (net
payments (in 2022 (in percentage Agency-cited reason
Agency/program billions) billions) points) for increase
Department of Labor $44 $44 35.9 First time reporting in
– Unemployment fiscal year 2023
Insurance - Federal
Pandemic
Unemployment
Assistance
Small Business $19 $19 40.5 First time reporting in
Administration – fiscal year 2023
Payment Protection
Program Loan
Forgiveness
Department of $9 $9 11.5 Program did not report
Agriculture – improper payment
Supplemental estimates in fiscal years
Nutrition Assistance 2021 and 2022; resumed
Program reporting of improper
payment testing in fiscal
year 2023
Small Business $4 $4 49.1 First time reporting in
Administration – fiscal year 2023
Payment Protection
Program Loan
Guaranty Purchases
Department of $3 $2 2.2 Refinement of
Health and Human methodology used to
Services – Medicare recognize payment errors
Prescription Drug
Benefit (Part D)
Source: GAO analysis of Office of Management and Budget PaymentAccuracy.gov data and agency financial reports. | GAO-24-106927
What legal The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA) requires executive branch
requirements do agencies to, among other things, (1) review all programs and activities and
agencies have for identify those that may be susceptible to significant improper payments
managing improper (commonly referred to as conducting a risk assessment), (2) publish improper
payment estimates for those programs and activities that the agency identified as
payments?
being susceptible to significant improper payments, (3) implement corrective
actions to reduce improper payments and set reduction targets, and (4) report on
the results of addressing the foregoing requirements. 6
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plays a key role in developing
guidance for executive branch agencies on estimating and reporting on improper
Page 7 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
payments. OMB Circular No. A-123, appendix C, includes guidance for
inspectors general (IG) on how to determine agency compliance with applicable
PIIA criteria. 7 It also includes guidance for executive branch agencies on the
corrective actions that PIIA requires them to take if they are found noncompliant.
In addition, PIIA requires the IG at each executive branch agency to issue an
annual report on the agency’s compliance with applicable PIIA criteria. 8
As shown in figure 4, PIIA and OMB M-21-19 include criteria for compliance.
Figure 4: Compliance with Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 Criteria and Related
Office of Management and Budget Requirements
Specifically, OMB instructs IGs to report on whether their agencies are compliant
with the following 10 criteria.
1a. publish payment integrity information with their annual financial statements,
1b. post their annual financial statements and accompanying materials on their
websites,
2a. conduct improper payment risk assessments for each program with annual
outlays greater than $10 million at least once in the last 3 fiscal years,
2b. adequately conclude whether each program is likely to make improper
payments and unknown payments above or below the statutory threshold (either
$100 million or both 1.5 percent of program outlays and $10 million),
Page 8 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
3. publish improper payment and unknown payment estimates for programs
susceptible to significant improper payments and unknown payments in the
accompanying materials to the annual financial statements,
4. publish corrective action plans for each program for which an estimate above
the statutory threshold was published in the accompanying materials to the
annual financial statements,
5a. publish an improper payment and unknown payment reduction target for
each program for which an estimate above the statutory threshold was published
in the accompanying materials to the annual financial statements,
5b. demonstrate improvements to payment integrity or reach a tolerable improper
payment and unknown payment rate,
5c. develop a plan to meet their improper payment and unknown payment
reduction targets, 9 and
6. report improper payment and unknown payment estimates of less than 10
percent for each program for which they published estimates in the
accompanying materials to their annual financial statements.
The criteria described above do not apply to all programs or agencies. For
example, if an agency determines through its risk assessment that none of its
programs or activities are susceptible to significant improper payments, criteria
three through six would not be applicable. If an IG concludes that any of the
agency’s programs or activities fail to meet any of the applicable criteria, the
agency is considered noncompliant under PIIA for that fiscal year and is required
to take additional actions for each year it is noncompliant, such as providing
OMB with a description of the actions that the agency will take to come into
compliance.
How many CFO Act In fiscal year 2022, 14 of the 24 CFO Act agencies fully complied with PIIA
agencies complied with criteria and related OMB requirements, according to their IGs. 10 This was an
the legal criteria for increase from fiscal year 2021, when IGs reported 10 agencies were compliant.
managing improper Figure 5 provides a 7-year comparison of agency compliance rates, as reported
payments in recent by agency IGs. 11
years?
Page 9 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Figure 5: CFO Act Agencies’ Compliance with PIIA or IPERA Criteria for Fiscal Years 2016
through 2022, as Reported by Their IGs
The increase in compliance with PIIA and related OMB criteria from fiscal years
2021 to 2022 is attributable to four previously noncompliant agencies becoming
compliant. 12 Additionally, no previously compliant agencies became
noncompliant.
As shown in figure 6, each of the 10 criteria had at least one instance of
noncompliance in fiscal year 2022. However, all 24 CFO Act agencies complied
with at least one of the 10 PIIA-related OMB requirements. A few criteria had
relatively high noncompliance rates. For example, excluding agencies for which
the criterion was inapplicable, IGs found that half of agencies had at least one
program reporting an estimate of over 10 percent (criterion 6).
Page 10 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
Figure 6: CFO Act Agencies’ Compliance with PIIA and OMB Criteria for Fiscal Year 2022, as
Reported by Their IGs
IGs identified various causes for agencies’ noncompliance with these criteria and
published numerous findings and recommendations for improvements.
• High improper payment rate estimates. Seven agencies (Department of
Agriculture (USDA), Department of Education, HHS, Department of Labor
(DOL), Treasury, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Small Business
Administration (SBA)) were found to be noncompliant with OMB criterion 6. In
addition, two of these agencies (Labor and VA) received new
recommendations to reduce their improper payment rate estimates below the
10 percent threshold. For example, Labor reported a combined improper and
unknown payment rate of 22.2 percent for its Unemployment Insurance
program in fiscal year 2022, which exceeded the 10 percent threshold
established by PIIA. As a result, its IG recommended that Labor maintain its
current focus on increasing technical assistance and funding to states to
improve the improper payment reduction strategies and thereby reduce the
improper payments estimate rate.
• Inadequate risk assessments. Three agencies (USDA, Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA))
were found to be noncompliant with OMB criteria 2a or 2b. In addition, six
agencies (USDA, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
Treasury, DHS, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and SBA)
received new recommendations to modify their risk assessment
methodologies or update their related processes. Three others (Department
of the Interior, EPA, and HHS) had open risk assessment-related
Page 11 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
recommendations from prior years. For example, Treasury’s auditor reported
that the agency did not sufficiently review its risk assessments, with some risk
assessment questions including inaccurate responses and justifications that
did not properly support the responses. 13 According to the Treasury IG’s
report, the lack of sufficient reviews can lead to an inaccurate assessment of
a program’s susceptibility to improper payments, increasing the likelihood for
management to miss taking proper actions over the program’s improper
payments. As a result, Treasury’s auditor recommended that the agency
complete sufficient reviews of the program-specific risk assessments to better
prevent this issue from reoccurring.
• Unreliable estimates. Five agencies (HUD, Department of Defense, Labor,
HHS, and SBA) were designated as noncompliant with OMB criterion 3.
These five and one additional agency, Education, received new
recommendations to address their unreliable improper payment estimates.
For example, HUD did not report improper payment estimates for the Office
of Public and Indian Housing’s Tenant Based Rental Assistance program and
the Office of Multifamily Housing’s Project-Based Rental Assistance
program. 14 These programs spent $41 billion in fiscal year 2022, which
represented 61.6 percent of HUD’s total expenditures. According to its IG’s
office, HUD did not report improper payment estimates for these programs
because it was not successful in planning and developing a platform to collect
and secure supporting documentation that contained personally identifiable
information. As a result, HUD IG recommended that the agency develop and
complete a detailed plan and timeline for these estimates in time for its fiscal
year 2023 reporting.
Agency Comments We provided a draft of this report to OMB for review and comment. OMB did not
have any comments on the report.
How GAO Did This To conduct this work, we compiled improper payment estimates from OMB’s
Study PaymentAccuracy.gov website. We summarized and compared the improper
payment estimates to identify any substantial changes in fiscal years 2022 to
2023. A substantial change in improper payments is one in which the estimated
improper payment amount changed by at least $1 billion, and the improper
payment rate changed more than the reported margin of error for the agency
estimate of improper payments. We reviewed the agencies’ agency financial
reports or performance and accountability reports and PaymentAccuracy.gov
website to determine what factors agencies identified as the causes for these
changes. In addition, we reviewed the fiscal year 2022 PIIA criteria compliance
reports issued by each agency’s IG.
We conducted this performance audit from July 2023 to March 2024 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those
standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient,
appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence
obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on
our audit objectives.
Page 12 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
List of Addressees The Honorable Mark E. Amodei
Chairman
The Honorable Adriano Espaillat
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives
We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees
and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In addition, the report
is available at no charge on the GAO website at https://www.gao.gov.
.
GAO Contact For more information, contact: M. Hannah Padilla, Director, Financial
Information Management and Assurance, PadillaH@gao.gov , (202) 512-5683
Chuck Young, Managing Director, Public Affairs, YoungC1@gao.gov, (202) 512-
4800
A. Nicole Clowers, Managing Director, Congressional Relations,
ClowersA@gao.gov, (202) 512-4400
Staff Acknowledgments: Matt Valenta (Assistant Director), Laura Pacheco
(Analyst-in-Charge), Seth Brewington, Marcia Carlsen, Tabitha FitzGibbon,
Jason Kelly, Jenny Lee, Sarah Lisk, and Megan Jones.
Connect with GAO on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. Subscribe to our
RSS Feeds or Email Updates. Listen to our Podcasts.
Visit GAO on the web at https://www.gao.gov.
This work of the United States may include copyrighted material, details at
https://www.gao.gov/copyright
Endnotes
1An improper payment is defined by law as any payment that should not have been made or that
was made in an incorrect amount (including overpayments and underpayments) under statutory,
contractual, administrative, or other legally applicable requirements. It includes any payment to an
ineligible recipient, any payment for an ineligible good or service, any duplicate payment, any
payment for a good or service not received (except for such payments where authorized by law),
and any payment that does not account for credit for applicable discounts. 31 U.S.C. § 3351(4).
When an executive agency’s review is unable to discern whether a payment was proper because of
insufficient or lack of documentation, this payment must also be included in the improper payment
estimate. 31 U.S.C. §3352(c)(2).
2Medicare is composed of the Medicare Fee-For-Service, Medicare Advantage (Part C), and
Medicare Prescription Drug (Part D) programs.
3OMB’s PaymentAccuracy.gov data call for fiscal year 2023 included guidance for agencies to use
when reporting the types of their estimated improper payments. This guidance was in addition to
that provided in OMB M-21-19 on reporting estimates for programs or activities that are identified
as susceptible to improper payments. According to OMB M-21-19, “overpayments” are payments
exceeding the amount due, and are payments that, in theory, should or could be recovered.
“Underpayments” are those in which recipients did not receive the funds to which they were
entitled. “Unknown payments” are those that a program cannot determine were either proper or
improper. “Technically improper payments” are those in which recipients received funds they were
entitled to, but the payment failed to follow all applicable statutes or regulations.
4GAO, COVID-19: Current and Future Federal Preparedness Requires Fixes to Improve Health
Data and Address Improper Payments, GAO-22-105397 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 27, 2022).
Page 13 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
5PaymentAccuracy.gov is an official U.S. government website managed by OMB. It contains,
among other things, information about current and historical rates (i.e., agency-reported amounts
as a percentage of outlays) and amounts of improper payments, root causes of monetary loss and
improper payments, monetary-loss recovery efforts, and high-priority program scorecards. In
addition, for purposes of this report, a program that has experienced a substantial decline or
increase in improper payments is one in which the estimated improper payments amount
decreased or increased by at least $1 billion, and the improper payment rate decreased or
increased more than the reported margin of error for the agency estimate of improper payments.
This latter condition reduces but does not eliminate the possibility that the observed declines or
increases are due to variability arising from the improper payment estimation process. For two
programs—(1) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Assistance and (2) COVID-19
Claims Reimbursement to Health Care Providers and Facilities for Testing, Treatment, and Vaccine
Administration for the Uninsured Program—the reported confidence intervals for the fiscal years
2022 and 2023 estimates overlap, which indicates a greater risk that variability resulting from the
estimation process could explain all or a substantial part of the observed declines for those
programs.
631 U.S.C. § 3352.
7OMB M-21-19, issued on March 5, 2021, became effective starting in fiscal year 2021.
831 U.S.C. § 3353(a).
9OMB M-21-19’s criteria 5a, 5b, and 5c relate to 31 U.S.C. § 3351(2)(E), which states that
compliance means that the executive agency “publishes improper payment reductions targets
prepared under [31 U.S.C. § 3352(d)] that the executive agency may have in the accompanying
materials to the annual financial statement for each program or activity assessed to be at risk, and
has demonstrated improvements and developed a plan to meet the reduction targets.”
10The CFO Act, Pub. L. No. 101-576, 104 Stat. 2838 (Nov. 15, 1990) (codified as amended in
scattered sections of 31 U.S.C.), among other things, established chief financial officers to oversee
financial management activities at 23 major executive departments and agencies. The list now
includes 24 entities, which are often referred to collectively as CFO Act agencies, and is codified as
amended at 31 U.S.C. § 901(b). We focused on the 24 CFO Act agencies because the improper
payment estimates for those agencies accounted for over 99 percent of the federal government’s
reported estimated improper payments for fiscal year 2022. However, PIIA applies to both CFO Act
and non-CFO Act executive agencies. According to PaymentAccuracy.gov, 41 out of the 55
executive branch agencies reporting in fiscal year 2022 were determined by their respective IGs to
be compliant with PIIA criteria. In addition, IGs are required to issue compliance reports under PIIA.
31 U.S.C. § 3353. Per OMB M-21-19, the compliance reports are due within 180 days following the
publishing of agencies’ annual financial statements and accompanying materials, which typically
occurs in mid-November. The most recent IG compliance reports available were issued in 2023 for
agencies’ fiscal year 2022 compliance with PIIA criteria.
11This comparison includes Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA)
(Pub. L. No. 111-204, 124 Stat. 2224) requirements for fiscal years prior to 2020 and PIIA
requirements for fiscal year 2020 onward. IPERA established a requirement for agency IGs to
report annually on their respective agencies’ compliance. In March 2020, Congress and the
President enacted PIIA, which repealed IPERA and the other improper payments reporting-related
statutes and enacted substantially similar provisions, including those related to IGs’ reporting on
agency compliance with criteria and the compliance criteria themselves. Pub. L. No. 116-117, 134
Stat. 113 (codified at 31 U.S.C. §§ 3351-58).
12The four agencies that became compliant with applicable PIIA criteria in fiscal year 2022 were the
Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of
Personnel Management, and Social Security Administration.
13Department of the Treasury, Office of Inspector General, Audit of Treasury’s Compliance with the
PIIA Requirements for Fiscal Year 2022, OIG-23-026 (Washington, D.C.: May 2023).
14Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, HUD Did Not
Comply With the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019, 2023-FO-0009 (Washington, D.C.: May
2023).
Page 14 GAO-24-106927 Improper Payments
File and source
- File
- d24106927.pdf
- Size
- 631,183 bytes
- SHA-256
- 03f02c74352764b34f9110e671c2dee78e910e0bf08d6da02a070b08167b1798
- Our copy
- d24106927.pdf
- Original
- www.gao.gov