SENATOR FRED THOMPSON
INTRODUCTION TO
A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR ANNUAL RECOVERY AUDITS
Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill which begins
to address the issue of improper payments in Federal programs.
Each year, the Federal government spends hundreds of
billions of dollars for a variety of grants, transfer payments,
and the procurement of goods and services. The Federal
government must be accountable for how it spends these funds and
for safeguarding against improper payments. Unfortunately, the
problem of improper payments by Federal agencies and departments
is immense. Today, I released a GAO report which I requested
which identifies $20.7 billion in improper payments in just 20
major programs administered by 12 Federal agencies in Fiscal Year
1999 alone. And this represents an increase of more than $1.5
billion from the previous year's estimate. In its report, GAO
writes that its "audits and those of agency inspectors general
continue to demonstrate that improper payments are much more
widespread than agency financial statement reports have disclosed
thus far."
Legislative efforts have focused on improving the Federal
government's control processes. Recently-enacted laws, such as
the Chief Financial Officers Act, the Government Management
Reform Act, and the Government Performance and Results Act, have
provided an impetus for agencies to systematically measure and
reduce the extent of improper payments.
However, the risk of improper payments and the government's
ability to prevent them continue to be a significant problem.
While we continue to work to improve the government's widespread
financial management weaknesses, we also can attempt to recover
the tens of billions of dollars in improper payments. And that's
what the legislation I am introducing today will do.
The legislation is modeled on H.R. 1827, a bill sponsored by
House Committee on Government Reform Chairman Dan Burton, to
require the use of a management technique called "recovery
auditing" which would be applied to a Federal agency's records to
identify improper payments or payment errors made by the agency.
Recovery auditing is used extensively by private sector
businesses, including a majority of Fortune 500 companies. These
businesses typically contract with specialized recovery auditing
firms that are paid a contingent fee based on the amounts
recovered from overpayments they identify. Recovery auditing is
not "auditing" in the usual sense. Recovery auditing firms do
not examine the records of vendors doing business with their
client companies or assess the vendors' performance. Instead,
these firms develop and use computer software programs that are
capable of analyzing their clients' own contract and payment
records in order to identify discrepancies in those records
between what was owed and what was paid. They focus on obvious
but inadvertent errors, such as duplicate payments or failure to
get credit for applicable discounts and allowances.
The bill I am introducing today would require Federal
agencies to perform recovery audits in order to identify
discrepancies between what was actually paid by the agency and
what should have been paid. This bill seeks to address concerns
with H.R. 1827 which were raised after its passage by the House.
For example, this bill would make clear that the relationship
established by this bill is one between the agency and the
recovery audit contractor, and all communications and interaction
on the part of the recovery audit contractor is with the agency.
Further, this bill includes exemptions for contracts which, under
current law, already are subject to extensive audit scrutiny and
oversight. Also, this bill includes Federal agency authority for
recovery audit pilot programs for contracts, grants or other
arrangements other than those covered by this bill.
I appreciate all the work done by Chairman Burton on H.R.
1827. I believe my legislation appropriately addresses concerns
raised with that bill and goes a long way in addressing the
wasted taxpayer dollars and government inefficiencies resulting
from Federal agency payment errors which are made each year.
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