As reported by Newsmax: Feds Dole Out $106 Billion in Improper Payments...Annually! Federal spending has grown too massive to be adequately overseen. Thats the conclusion reached by two researchers based on the latest federal estimates showing that government programs made $106 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2013 — payments that violated guidelines or rules in some way. Fraud accounted for some of the improper payments, but others resulted from simple clerical errors or a failure to confirm that a recipient was eligible to receive the amount of money that was distributed, according to Veronique de Rugy and Jason J. Fichtner, senior research fellows at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has designated 13 federal programs as high-error, meaning that they have high rates of improper payments. The Earned Income Tax Credit had the highest improper payment rate in 2013, 24 percent, indicating that the program is particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. The National School Lunch Program had a 15.7 percent improper payment rate, the Medicare Fee-for-Service program had a 10.1 percent improper payment rate, and Unemployment Insurance had a 9.3 percent rate. Based on absolute spending rather than the error rate, the program with the highest amount of improper payments was Medicare Fee-for-Service, $36 billion, followed by the Earned Income Tax Credit ($14.5 billion), Medicaid ($14.4 billion), and Medicare Advantage ($11.8 billion). The researchers point out that there is reason to believe the OMB significantly underestimates the taxpayer dollars lost to fraud and bureaucratic ineffectiveness. They add: While people on both sides of the political aisle can debate the merits of whether or not government should be involved in certain activities, no one in good conscience should tolerate the high levels of improper payments currently associated with government spending on social welfare programs.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:11:43 +0000
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