Senate
Approves Legislation to Uncover Federal Programs Susceptible
to Financial Mismanagement
Friday, October 18, 2002
Washington, DC - Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman and Ranking Member Fred
Thompson (R-TN) announced today that the Senate has approved
legislation requiring federal agencies to identify and report to
Congress on programs that may be susceptible to improper
payments. Improper payments result from a variety of causes
ranging from bureaucratic, such as paying someone twice, to
outright fraud.
"The amount of taxpayer dollars wasted
year after year because of improper payments is appalling, but
even more frustrating is that few agencies disclose these
payments, so we have no way of knowing the full extent of this
mismanagement," Senator Thompson said. "This
legislation will give us a better grasp of the extent of the
problem, which is the first step toward correcting it."
The Senate passed H.R. 4878, the Improper
Payments Information Act, which includes a substitute offered by
Senators Thompson and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) that was adopted by
the Governmental Affairs Committee. The Thompson-Lieberman
substitute builds on legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Horn
(R-CA) and clarifies that the agencies’ reports should be
publicly disclosed to Congress and it requires the report to
include a discussion of the causes of the improper payments, the
actions being taken to address the situation, and the
results of those actions. The House of Representatives is
expected to adopt the substitute amendment when it reconvenes in
November.
"Misspent taxpayer dollars violate the
public trust. The hard-earned money of American taxpayers should
be used to maximum advantage and this legislation takes a step
in that direction. It would require agencies to identify areas
where money is being misspent, allowing funds to be used for
their intended purpose," said Lieberman.
"Public scrutiny is often the most
effective tool in focusing agency managers’ attention on
certain issues, and Americans deserve to know if their tax
dollars are being mismanaged," said Thompson. "It is
not just the Administration’s responsibility to resolve
improper payment issues. Congress holds the purse strings and
should also be held accountable should this problem fail to be
resolved."
Senator Thompson recently released a report by
the Government Accounting Office that found six government
agencies reporting more than $19 billion in wasted taxpayer
money. The report also concluded that the actual extent of
improper payments government-wide is unknown, but it is likely
to be billions of dollars more.
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