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Financial Management: Challenges Continue in Meeting Requirements of the Improper Payments Information Act

GAO-06-581T Published: Apr 05, 2006. Publicly Released: Apr 05, 2006.
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Highlights

Improper payments are a long-standing, widespread, and significant problem in the federal government. The Congress enacted the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) to address this issue. Fiscal year 2005 marked the second year that agencies were required to report improper payment information under IPIA. One result of IPIA has been increased visibility over improper payments by requiring executive branch agencies to identify programs and activities susceptible to significant improper payments, estimate the amount of their improper payments, and report on the amounts of improper payments and their actions to reduce them in their annual performance and accountability reports (PAR). Because of continued interest in addressing the governmentwide improper payments issue, GAO was asked to report on the progress made by agencies in complying with requirements of IPIA and the status of efforts to identify, reduce, and eliminate improper payments. As part of the review, GAO looked at (1) the extent to which agencies have performed risk assessments, (2) the annual amount of improper payments estimated, and (3) the amount of improper payments recouped through recovery audits.

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AccountabilityErroneous paymentsFederal agenciesFederal fundsFederal lawInternal controlsPerformance measuresReporting requirementsRisk assessmentFederal aid programsFinancial managementTransparency