Congressional Response Report: Interagency Agreements with the Office of Personnel Management for Administrative Law Judge Services

Date: 
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Management Issue: 
Improve Transparency and Accountability
Report Number: 
A-05-12-22144
Report Type: 
Audit Report
Office Affiliation: 
The Office of Audit

In a July 2012 letter, U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Social Security, expressed concerns about the increasing costs associated with SSA’s interagency agreements with OPM for services related to ALJs given the fiscal constraints limiting SSA’s administrative funding.

We sought to determine:

  1. whether OPM provided SSA with performance reports related to ALJ services for Fiscal Year 2011 before SSA paid for those services;
  2. how OPM calculated the charges for ALJ-related services; and
  3. whether available accounting and performance detail adequately supported the amount SSA paid for these services.

We also reviewed the status of the Fiscal Year 2012 ALJ interagency agreement process.