GAO 'improper payment' report may vastly underestimate true extent of federal waste

Recent reporting lays bare a sizable amount of “improper payments” made by federal agencies and programs in recent years, but according to Just the News, the tally disclosed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) may actually fall far short of the true figure due to insufficient transparency from some corners of the Biden administration.

The outlet noted that going back to 2003, upwards of $2.7 trillion in improper payments have gone out from the federal government, with $236 billion of that figure making its way out of the public coffers in FY 2023 alone.

However, according to the GAO, the “government-wide estimate potentially does not represent the full extent of improper payments,” which the agency defines as “those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.”

The reason for the potential discrepancies in reporting is, as Just the News notes, that “some agencies did not report the totals from select federal programs.”

Those programs, the GAO noted, are some of those most “susceptible to significant improper payments.”

Based on the GAO's own report, the unreported programs included the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services and also the Tenant Based Rental Assistance program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Public and Indian Housing.

The Project-Based Rental Assistance program under the purview of the Office of Multifamily Housing was also among the initiatives that did not report improper payments data.

The GAO noted that the reported total came in at roughly $11 billion under the 2022 total, the true tally would almost certainly be higher for 2023 had the aforementioned programs reported their true figures.

In fiscal year 2023, out of all the improper payments reported to the GAO, fully 74% of them were described as “overpayments.”

The watchdog agency made no bones about the fact that such payments “represent a material deficiency or weakness in internal controls” across the federal entities implicated.

Making matters worse, according to the GAO, is the fact 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.”

Houses Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) issued statements in the aftermath of the GAO report's release, sounding the alarm and touting the need for greater accountability when it comes to improper payments.

Comer said, “As our national debt continues to balloon, it's imperative we reduce government spending and waste. It's unacceptable our federal government made $236 billion in improper payments during the last fiscal year. This systemic mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars must be addressed.”

Arrington concurred, saying, “In order to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington we must root out the gross mismanagement of American's hard-earned tax dollars, rein in spending, and reverse the curse of a debt crisis that looms large over our children's future,” but whether they will be able to effect any real change in this realm remains an open question.