United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-06-29 monographic deposited born digital 14 p. GA 1.13:T-NSIAD-99-213 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213 P0b002ee180382690 f:ns99213t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213 T-NSIAD-99-213 Proposed legislation Audits Overpayments Accountability Contractor payments Financial management Internal controls Private sector practices DOD Recovery Auditing Demonstration Program Testimony NSIAD S99213 Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed House Resolution 1827, the Government Waste Corrections Act of 1999, and its relationship to long-standing issues of government accountability for use of public monies and overpayments and the role of recovery auditing in identifying and recovering overpayments.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) significant financial system weaknesses, problems with fundamental recordkeeping and financial reporting, incomplete documentation, and weak internal controls continue to prevent the government from effectively managing many of its operations; (2) significant among these problems is the inability of federal agencies to determine the full extent of improper payments that occur in major programs and that are estimated to involve billions of dollars annually; (3) within the billions of dollars of improper payments is an unknown amount of overpayments; (4) while neither the federal agencies nor GAO have a good estimate of the extent of overpayments that occur each year, GAO expects that they are significant; (5) the Department of Defense (DOD) is conducting a recovery auditing demonstration program to identify overpayments for subsistence, medical, and clothing items purchased in fiscal years 1993 through 1995; (6) GAO evaluated the demonstration program and concluded that the concept of recovery auditing offers the potential to identify overpayments; (7) however, GAO found that implementation problems have limited the program's success; (8) as of June 1999, the recovery auditing contractor had identified about $29 million in overpayments made to suppliers on purchase volumes of roughly $6 billon; (9) collections by DOD amount to $2.6 million; (10) DOD has been slow to expand the use of recovery auditing beyond the initial demonstration program; (11) although contractors are sometimes overpaid, they are not required to inform the government of the overpayment or to return the money prior to the government issuing a formal demand letter requesting repayment; (12) in effect, the overpayment provides an interest free loan to the contractor; (13) contractors should be required to notify the government of overpayments when they become aware of them and to return the money promptly upon becoming aware of the overpayments; (14) if they do not return the money promptly, there should be some economic consequence; (15) federal agencies need to concentrate on paying bills properly in the first place; (16) however, recognizing that some overpayments are inevitable, they also need to adopt best practices to quickly identify and recover them; (17) the Government Waste Corrections Act of 1999 offers an opportunity to use recovery auditing to identify overpayments and the factors contributing to overpayments; (18) GAO supports the objectives of this important legislation; and (19) some commercial companies have used recovery auditing for many years as one mechanism to identify and recover overpayments. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213/html/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213.pdf GAO/T-NSIAD-99-213 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-NSIAD-99-213 Testimony GAO/T-NSIAD-99-213; Recovery Auditing: Reducing Overpayments, Achieving; Proposed legislation Audits Overpayments Accountability Contractor payments Financial management Internal controls Private sector practices DOD Recovery Auditing Demonstration Program H. Rept. 105-532