From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Reducing Government Duplication and Saving Tax Dollars Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Nikki Clowers, Director, Financial Markets and Community Investment. Related GAO Work: GAO-14-343SP: 2014 Annual Report: Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits Released: April 2014 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's April 2014. GAO is releasing its fourth annual look at the duplication, overlap, and fragmentation across the federal government as well as opportunities for cost savings and revenue enhancements. A team co-led by Nikki Clowers, a director in GAO's Financial Markets and Community Investment team conducted this latest review. GAO's Sarah Kaczmarek sat down with Nikki to talk about what they found. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] This report identifies areas of duplication, overlap, and fragmentation among federal programs. Can you talk a bit more about these findings? [ Nikki Clowers: ] We identify 11 new areas in which we found evidence of fragmentation, overlap, or duplication. And maybe it would be helpful to provide some definitions along with some examples of those findings. First we have fragmentation, in which multiple agencies or programs are focused on a specific broad area of national need, which can lead to inefficiencies. So for this year for example, we are reporting on the fragmented approach that the Department of Defense uses for contracting for healthcare professionals. We found instances in which multiple task orders were issued for the same services within a single military department. We recommend that increasing the use of joint-use contracts could result in cost savings and other improved efficiencies. So identifying the fragmentation is important to eliminate any potential inefficiencies. But it's also important to identify and weed out fragmentation because it can be a harbinger for overlap and duplication. By overlap I mean multiple agencies or programs are working on similar goals or have programs targeted to the similar populations. For example, this year we discuss overlap between the disability insurance and unemployment insurance programs. Under current law, individuals can receive concurrent payments from these two programs. And as a result the government is replacing a portion of lost wages not once, but twice. Addressing this overlap could save the government about $1.2 billion over 10 years. And finally we found instances of duplication, which occurs when multiple agencies or programs are focused on the same goals or the same populations. For example, we found eight different organizations within the Department of Defense are responsible for accounting for missing warriors. We found this fragmentation led to overlap and potential duplication. We recommend examining the current structure and clarifying the roles of these organizations, which would enhance the effectiveness in which this work is carried out. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Your team also identified additional cost saving opportunities for the federal government. What sorts of opportunities did you find there? [ Nikki Clowers: ] In this year's report we identify 15 new areas in which the government could achieve cost savings or enhance revenue collections. For example, we recommend that Congress rescind the remaining $4.2 billion in credit subsidies for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. This program was designed to encourage the development of advanced technologies, but we found that there was insufficient demand for this funding for a variety of reasons. Unless the Department of Energy can demonstrate a demand for this funding, Congress should rescind the remaining $4.2 billion in subsidy. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Can you talk a little bit about what kinds of progress you found across the government since GAO started this work? [ Nikki Clowers: ] We report that executive branch agencies in Congress have made progress in addressing issues that we had previously identified. In our last three annual reports we identified approximately 380 actions, or you can think of them as recommendations, that executive branch agencies or Congress should take to address the issues we identified. This year we're reporting about 30 percent of these actions have now been addressed. For example, in 2011 we reported that Congress could save up to $5 billion annually by eliminating or reducing direct farm payments. These payments are fixed annual payments to farmers based on a farm's history of crop production. And farmers receive them regardless of whether they grew crops and even in years of record income. The recent farm bill eliminated these direct payments. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] For taxpayers interested in understanding how their taxes could be spent more efficiently and effectively by the federal government, what do you see as the bottom line here? [ Nikki Clowers: ] It's always important that the government operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. But the urgency is even greater in today's fiscal environment. One way to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government is to address opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap, duplication, or achieve other cost savings. Our body of work in this area provides policymakers with a road map for doing just that. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit gao.gov, and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.