Watchdog urges OMB to prioritize implementation of anti-fraud recommendations

The Government Accountability Office on Aug. 9 reminded the agency responsible for producing the president’s budget about recommendations that it has yet to implement, emphasizing ones to reduce improper payments and fraud. 

As of June 2024, the Office of Management and Budget had not fulfilled 172 recommendations that GAO has made, including 37 that the oversight entity deemed as priority. 

Two recommendations issued this year urge OMB to respectively collaborate with inspectors general and federal agencies to collect data to better estimate fraud. 

“The significant estimated annual loss from fraud — ranging from $233 billion to $521 billion — reinforces the importance of fraud risk management, with an emphasis on prevention,” according to GAO’s document. “With additional data, more granular estimates, such as at the program level, are possible. With more targeted estimates, agencies would be better positioned to leverage this information to strategically manage fraud risk.”

Relatedly, GAO estimated that the federal government in fiscal 2023 made $236 billion in improper payments, or payment errors. An unimplemented recommendation from 2017 would direct OMB to implement goals and other performance measures to evaluate agencies’ use of the “do not pay” working system, a resource operated by the Treasury Department to detect and prevent improper payments. 

OMB disagreed with two GAO recommendations regarding disaster relief. 

Specifically, the agency argued it has already completed a recommendation to develop guidance for federal agencies on designing internal control plans for disaster relief funding. (GAO said the guidance is not specific enough.) It also disagreed with a recommendation to create a strategy to ensure agencies disclose adequate internal control plans in a timely manner for effective oversight of disaster relief funds, contending that agency leaders are responsible for such oversight. 

GAO acknowledged that the budget agency has implemented four priority recommendations since it sent a similar letter to OMB in May 2023, including developing a process to identify and secure information technology assets that support mission essential systems and releasing a strategy to bolster the federal cybersecurity workforce. 

The watchdog also recently has issued similar reminders about open recommendations to the Office of Personnel Management and General Services Administration.