Improper Payments: Pentagon's $1 Billion Pales in Comparison to Medicare, Medicaid
source: http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/09/improper-payments-pentagons-1-billion-pales-in-comp...
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By ANDRE FRANCISCO
Last week, I wrote about how the Pentagon probably shouldn't be teaching any personal finance classes. A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report had said the Pentagon made at least $1 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2010, though because of how the Pentagon calculated that number it should probably be higher.
But even though the Department of Defense (DoD) made probably more than $1 billion in improper payments, that puts them pretty low on the totem pole of government agencies or programs making improper payments.
This graph comes from a letter sent by Kay Daly, Director of GAO's Financial Management and Assurance Team, to Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Scott Brown (R-MA). As you can see, Medicare and Medicaid are clearly the biggest offenders, with a combined $70.4 billion out of the $125 billion made in improper payments in fiscal year 2010.
The ten highlighted programs make up 94 percent of the total estimated improper payments. This is not only a federal problem. Four of the top ten offender programs are state-run.
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, the DoD has only has 20 cents out of every $1000 in Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) violations, according to Under Secretary of Defense Robert F. Hale. In his Senate testimony, Hale added that the DoD also has a better record of on-time payments and fewer ADA violations than other agencies.
This GAO letter and graph supports the general idea that the DoD isn’t the worst offender when it comes to improper payments, but given the size of the DoD, the need for it to get its financial house in order is still urgent. One billion dollars is quite a bit of change in the couch.
Last week, I wrote about how the Pentagon probably shouldn't be teaching any personal finance classes. A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report had said the Pentagon made at least $1 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2010, though because of how the Pentagon calculated that number it should probably be higher.
But even though the Department of Defense (DoD) made probably more than $1 billion in improper payments, that puts them pretty low on the totem pole of government agencies or programs making improper payments.
This graph comes from a letter sent by Kay Daly, Director of GAO's Financial Management and Assurance Team, to Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Scott Brown (R-MA). As you can see, Medicare and Medicaid are clearly the biggest offenders, with a combined $70.4 billion out of the $125 billion made in improper payments in fiscal year 2010.
The ten highlighted programs make up 94 percent of the total estimated improper payments. This is not only a federal problem. Four of the top ten offender programs are state-run.
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, the DoD has only has 20 cents out of every $1000 in Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) violations, according to Under Secretary of Defense Robert F. Hale. In his Senate testimony, Hale added that the DoD also has a better record of on-time payments and fewer ADA violations than other agencies.
This GAO letter and graph supports the general idea that the DoD isn’t the worst offender when it comes to improper payments, but given the size of the DoD, the need for it to get its financial house in order is still urgent. One billion dollars is quite a bit of change in the couch.
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