United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-10-03 monographic deposited born digital 32 p. GA 1.13:GAO-03-167T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T P0b002ee180396df9 f:d03167t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T GAO-03-167T Accountability Financial management Internal controls Strategic planning Credit sales Credit Federal procurement Erroneous payments Testimony A05234

This testimony discusses (1) how internal control weaknesses make the departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Education vulnerable to, and in some cases have resulted in, improper and questionable payments and (2) strategies these and other federal agencies can use to better manage their improper payments. Despite a climate of increased scrutiny, most improper payments associated with federal programs continue to go unidentified as they drain taxpayer resources away from the missions and goals of our government. GAO found that both HUD and Education lacked fundamental internal controls over their purchase card programs that would have minimized the risk of improper purchases. Combined with a lack of monitoring, environments were created at HUD and Education where improper purchases could be made with little risk of detection. One of the most important internal controls in the purchase card process is the review of supporting documentation and approval of each purchase by the approving official. Another control that is effective in helping to prevent improper purchases is the blocking of certain merchant category codes. This control, available as part of the agencies' purchase card contracts with the card issuing financial institutions, allows agencies to prohibit certain types of purchases that are clearly not business related. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T.pdf GAO-03-167T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-167T Testimony GAO-03-167T; Financial Management: Strategies to Address Improper Payments at HUD, Education, and Other Federal Agencies; Accountability Financial management Internal controls Strategic planning Credit sales Credit Federal procurement Erroneous payments Title 5 Section 4103 Title 5 Section 4107 Title 5 Section 5703 5 U.S.C. 4103 5 U.S.C. 4107 5 U.S.C. 5703 Title 31 Section 1345 31 U.S.C. 1345 Public Law 107-107