Priority Open Recommendations: Office of Personnel Management

What GAO Found

In August 2025, GAO identified 14 priority recommendations for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Since then, OPM has implemented three of those recommendations.

In July 2026, GAO removed the priority status from three recommendations, bringing the total to eight. GAO is highlighting the following three areas that warrant timely and focused attention:

• Preventing improper payments,
• Strengthening IT management, and
• Managing the federal workforce.

Addressing GAO’s recommendations in these areas could help prevent up to an estimated $1 billion per year in improper payments for those ineligible to receive federal health insurance benefits, reduce costs on duplicative or unnecessary software licenses, and improve agencies’ ability to attract top talent to the federal government. Taking action to implement all of GAO’s open priority recommendations could help enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of operations across OPM.

Why GAO Did This Study

Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision-making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or make progress toward addressing a high risk or duplication issue, among other benefits.

Since 2015, GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.

For more information, contact Cardell Johnson at JohnsonCD1@gao.gov.