Summary

GAO discussed the reliability of the Food Stamp Program's error rates, which served as the basis for sanctions that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) assessed against states for excessive errors they made in determining fiscal year 1984 program eligibility and benefit levels.

GAO found that: (1) in the three states it evaluated, the federal and state quality control reviews (QCR) were generally adequate, but the QCR process could have been improved; (2) USDA and the three states properly conducted QCR of cases representative of the overall food stamp case load; (3) a USDA regulation required states to drop cases from the QCR process that they could have completed; (4) the dropped cases were about twice as error-prone as completed cases and, if completed, would have increased error rates in all three states and sanctions in two of the three states; and (5) in computing the official error rates, USDA made statistical and mathematical mistakes for 13 of the 25 states.