Improper Payments in Government Training Workshop

On March 16, 2015, GAO issued their report, Improper Payments, Government-wide Estimates and Use of Death Data to Help Prevent Payments to Deceased Individuals. GAO determined that improper payment estimates significantly increased in FY 2014 from the prior year; from $105.8 billion to $124.7 billion, an increase of 14%. Agencies are continuing to face challenges in estimating and reducing improper payments. For example, not all agencies have developed improper payment estimates for all programs and activities they identified as susceptible to significant improper payments. And for agencies that have developed estimation methodologies, those methodologies may not produce reliable results. Additionally, risk assessments may not accurately assess the risk of improper payments. Compounding these challenges, agencies must implement new requirements set forth in the revised Appendix C beginning in FY 2015.

Although the intent of the revision is to transform the improper compliance framework to create a more unified, comprehensive, and less burdensome set of requirements, changes do need to be made to current processes and procedures. New requirements include: establishing new categories for reporting improper payments; adopting a new internal control framework to ensure that payments are made in the right amount, to the right entity, and for the right purpose; and, certifying the statistical validity of estimates.

With the release of GAOs latest report on improper payments, along with the revised Appendix C guidance, there is even greater emphasis for agencies to implement innovative and effective solutions to increase payment accuracy. Agencies should continue to engage their financial and programmatic resources, statisticians and other experts to achieve the goals set forth in the new guidance. These efforts along with the efforts of agency Inspectors General will continue to drive down improper payments.