Regular readers know that I have a special fondness for the GAO (General Accountability Office). It is truly a fiscal watchdog over the activities of our federal government. But, it is a watchdog without teeth as, in most cases, all it can do is speak from the bully pulpit. Howsomever, every so often people do listen and a step for the better is taken.
Let me start out today by talking about the difficulties our government has in paying vendors the amount they are owed. Sometimes we - our government - pay when we don't have to, other times we pay more than we should. In FY2007 these 'improper payments' amounted to $55 billion, an increase of $14 billion over the improper payments made in FY2006. One example which shocked me - the National School Lunch Program made $1.4 billion in improper payments in one year.
These amounts do not reflect the full story as a number of agencies do not comply with the law which says that they need to conduct risk assessments of all their programs and activities to determine whether any payments are being made improperly. Much of the problem can be attributed to poor internal controls.
Some day I'm going to review the postings I've made about the GAO and add up all the money that has been wasted. It has to be in the trillions.
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