Tag Archives: Government Accountability Office (GAO)

When You Don’t Follow The Recommendations

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the fraud in the federal government and the reluctance of the federal government to follow the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office.

The article reports:

The federal government continues to lose an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion each year to fraud, while most agencies overseeing the nation’s largest federally funded programs have yet to implement one of the Government Accountability Office’s top recommendations for preventing those losses, according to a new GAO report.

The report, Managing Risks in Federally Funded, State-Administered Programs, reviewed the 20 largest federally funded, state-administered programs, which accounted for approximately $1.1 trillion in federal obligations in fiscal year 2025.

The GAO found in the report released Thursday that most agencies have not completed documented fraud risk assessments. The assessments are instrumental in identifying where fraud is most likely to occur and how to prevent it.

“Federal and state agencies can better manage fraud risks and prevent fraud by applying GAO frameworks for managing fraud risks and improper payments, as well as other leading practices; leveraging available federal analytic resources, such as Do Not Pay, to verify recipient identity and eligibility before issuing federal funds; and implementing recommendations from GAO and other oversight entities that would address existing program vulnerabilities,” the report read.

The watchdog said there are currently 22 open recommendations that are focused on enhancing fraud prevention practices across the programs covered in the report.

The watchdog urged federal agencies to implement them to better safeguard taxpayer funds, particularly in state-administered programs.

The article concludes:

Among the examples cited were a consultant convicted of submitting falsified permits tied to a $4.3 million airport improvement project, landlords receiving housing-assistance payments for vacant units while tenants underreported income, and an alleged student financial aid fraud scheme involving more than 1,200 applicants at over 100 schools across 24 states.

GAO said that the consequences of fraud extend beyond financial losses.

“Every dollar or resource diverted to fraudsters hinders the federal government’s ability to achieve its goals and provide needed services,” the report said.

Fraud in federal spending impacts all Americans. We pay a price in higher taxes and less services. Government agencies who do not follow effective anti-fraud guidelines need to be penalized.

Taking Action Against Fraud

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On Saturday, Alpha News posted an article about changes made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to stop the fraud within the program.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has disqualified 1,562 retailers associated with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and disabled 760 illegal point-of-sale devices since Oct. 1, 2025.

This has resulted in the prevention of nearly $835 million in fraudulent SNAP transactions, Stephen Vaden, deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), said in an April 17 post on X.

“Commit fraud? We will find you and hold you accountable. Including jail time. And now, we have the whole of government, under the leadership of @VP and @AFergusonFTC, rooting out abuse of any program meant to help the most vulnerable,” Vaden wrote, referring to Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson.

Responding to the post, Ferguson said, “More is coming!”

Fraud by SNAP retailers can involve selling items not allowed under the program, exchanging SNAP benefits for cash, and lying on their applications to get authorized to participate as a retailer under the program, according to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

Such retailers can face permanent or temporary disqualification from the program, denial of application, withdrawal of authorization, financial penalties, and criminal charges that can lead to fines and even prison time.

The article concludes:

In a Dec. 2 report last year, the Government Accountability Office noted that most SNAP benefit cards lack features to prevent theft, such as microchips, which are standard on debit cards.

“Although the full extent of theft is unknown, states reported replacing more than $320 million in stolen benefits between October 2022 and December 2024. During that period, state SNAP agencies provided funds to replace stolen benefits when recipients reported a theft that could be substantiated,” the report said.

“But some recipients may not have known they could file a claim. And the law limited recipients’ filing to two claims per year. As a result, the estimate of losses may not truly reflect the full extent of theft. And, after December 2024, states can no longer replace stolen SNAP benefits with federal funds.”

It’s a beginning. I can’t imagine how much federal spending we can cut simply by dealing with the fraud.

Eliminating Fraud In Government

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On January 5th, Issues & Insights posted an article with a suggestion for ending government fraud.

The article notes:

Some are estimating that more than half of federal income tax revenues are devoured by fraud. This should not come as a shock. A massive government that funds everything from small businesses to health care to child care to housing is a rich target for thieves. Sharply reducing its size would limit the opportunities to steal from taxpayers.

Bandits have been defrauding of the U.S. government on such a colossal scale that even the legacy media has had to cover it, at least somewhat. The Minnesota Somalis looting the public fisc blew the lid so high that now smart folks are finding institutionalized fraud far, wide, high and low.

As noted in a March executive order, “the Government Accountability Office estimates that the federal government loses between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud.” That higher number might be in reality a low-end estimate, because the money flows from Washington from a number of orifices outside the Treasury Department, and an accurate tracking is simply not possible.

We say this because in fiscal 2024, non-Treasury disbursing offices “were estimated to be responsible for 181 million payments totaling over $1.5 trillion,” says the White House, roughly 22% of the entirety of federal dollars disbursed. Combine this fact with the fraud that is being uncovered and it’s obvious we’ve reached crisis levels.

The article concludes:

The only logical solution is to limit the possibilities by thoroughly downsizing the beast, which has grown well beyond the point to which its size has nurtured and sustained the “professionalized the pathways of corruption” and “is doing many more things than can be done with tolerable honesty.”

We are realists and understand that shrinking Washington is about as easy as threading a needle with a rope.

But Donald Trump was elected to decrease the length, width, and depth of the federal government, and while his efforts after eight years will be modest at best, Americans do have the ballot box to elect presidential and congressional candidates who will continue what he started. Maybe the Minnesota scandal is a watershed moment that will anger voters enough for them to understand what they have to do.

Shrinking government was at the root of the founding of the Tea Party. Unfortunately, some of the people involved in that movement have either aged out and become complacent. It is time for everyone to get involved in putting pressure on the government to downsize and cut spending.

One Problem With ObamaCare

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On Monday, The Federalist posted an article about the problem of fraud in the ObamaCare subsidies.

The article reports:

In recent months, these pages have recounted myriad reports of fraud in Medicaid and on the Obamacare Exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office and others have noted millions of potentially erroneous or fraudulent enrollees, who are receiving tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies.

On Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added to the reports pouring in. Its preliminary analysis raised additional questions about fraud relating to Exchange subsidies, providing yet another reason for Congress not to extend the enhanced Covid-era subsidy regime that expires at the end of the month. 

…During the last plan year, GAO noted that “we either were not requested to provide the federal Marketplace [i.e., Exchange] with documentation or generally did not provide what was requested, yet our four fictitious applicants received subsidized coverage for November and December 2024.” In one example, the federal Exchange sent a letter that “confirmed the applicant’s income based on documentation we submitted,” even though GAO had not sent any such documentation.

This year, GAO said the Exchange “initially approved coverage for 19 of our 20 fictitious applicants,” with the only exception being “when the broker we were working with stopped responding to us.” In another case, the Exchange cut off coverage after the fictitious enrollee did not provide citizenship documentation. But in total, nine months into the plan year in September, “coverage for 18 [of 20] fictitious enrollees remained active,” totaling over $10,000 per month in taxpayer subsidies paid to insurers on behalf of nonexistent enrollees.

One example of fraud:

In 2023, a total of 58,000 Social Security numbers received subsidies yet also matched Social Security Administration death data. These instances included more than 7,000 numbers “where the reported date of death occurred prior to enrollment” in the Exchange, and more than 19,000 numbers where “matches had different names and dates of birth” between the Exchange database and the Social Security Administration database, a potential sign of “synthetic identity fraud.”

The article concludes:

Regardless, lawmakers should not spend another $350 billion (plus interest) throwing good taxpayer money after bad, even as one government report after another shows Exchange-related fraud remains out of control. After incurring more than $38 trillion in debt, Washington should finally realize it has run out of other people’s money to spend on such profligacy.

It is past time to make the subsidies go away and find a better way to do healthcare.