Government Accountability Office
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Fraud has been a longstanding concern for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP. About a year ago, the Government Accountability Office took a look at the program and made recommendations that the Food and Nutrition Service reassess the detection tools that were being used. Today, FNS is cracking down on SNAP trafficking with predictive analysis. Jon Lemon is a systems engineer with SAS Federal. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to further discuss the program and fraud detection efforts.
August 10, 2015 -
The Government Accountability Office finds more problems with the Marine Corps' 2012 financial audit. The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General didn't go through the right procedures or find the right evidence to support a clean financial audit opinion in fiscal 2012. The DoD IG rescinded the clean opinion back in March. Asif Khan is director of financial management and assurance issues at the GAO. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose why he conducted the study and what tipped him off that the fiscal 2012 audit opinion may not be accurate.
August 07, 2015 -
Your agency has to review its progress in meeting strategic goals every year under the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. Chris Mihm is managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office. He's looking at a few best practices from six major departments and tells In Depth with Francis Rose that your agency can learn a thing or two from them.
August 03, 2015 -
The Defense Department's nuclear forces arsenal is getting a close look for affordability. Think tanks like the Government Accountability Office and even the Pentagon itself are all looking at how much money the agency should spend on nuclear stock. Todd Harrison is senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose why he thinks it's important to look at nuclear forces in the context of the whole weapons inventory.
July 31, 2015 -
The Internal Revenue Service has holes that look like Swiss cheese all throughout its business operations. Appropriations at the IRS are down nearly 7 percent over the last four fiscal years. And Congress won't likely pass an appropriations bill that comes close to the $13 billion President Barack Obama requested for the IR-S in fiscal 2016. Staff at the agency's Human Capital Office, Office of Chief Counsel, and Small Business -Self Employed Division has already been cut by 16 to 30 percent. Jay McTigue is director of tax issues for the Government Accountability Office's strategic issues team. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how years of budget cuts are affecting the IRS.
July 27, 2015 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has had only partial success stopping fraudulent doctors and suppliers from signing up to receive payments. Billions of dollars are at stake. That's according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Two of CMS' screening procedures work well, but GAO found major weaknesses in two others. Seto Bagdoyan is director of the Forensic Audits and Investigative Service at GAO. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on the report.
July 27, 2015-
The long and twisting road that is the Homeland Security Department’s continuous diagnostics and mitigation (CDM) program got a nice jolt earlier this month. The Government Accountability Office resolved a bid protest that has impacted the implementation of new cyber tools and services.
July 27, 2015 -
A Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month states the Office of Personnel Management isn't properly communicating employee engagement strategies with other agencies.
July 22, 2015 -
UPDATED: Agencies with the largest percentage of security clearances, such as DoD, DHS and VA, will end up shouldering a huge part of the burden to pay for the credit monitoring services for 21 million current and former federal employees impacted by the second data breach. AFGE and federal officials are angered after acting OPM Director Beth Cobert tells agencies about OPM’s plans to raise its fees for security clearance services it provides in order to recoup the costs of the identity protection services it must purchase for the victims of the attack.
July 21, 2015 -
The Government Accountability Office recently conducted 18 undercover tests of the federal Health Insurance Marketplace; 12 of those focused on phone or online applications. The results? All but one received subsidized health insurance coverage, despite a lack of sufficient documentation. Seto Bagdoyan is director of the Forensic Audits and Investigative Service at GAO. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to further discuss the tests.
July 20, 2015 -
Budget and staff reductions took a toll on the Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General. That's according to an audit by the Government Accountability Office. It finds that for the three years ending in fiscal 2013, the IG budget fell 13%, with staff cuts at 20%. Beryl Davis is the director of financial management and assurance issues at GAO. She joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with what else the IG missed.
July 20, 2015 -
Even though the Office of Personnel Management is responsible for the biggest breach to federal employee data in history, it is by no means the only agency having a tough time addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The number of cybersecurity incidents government-wide is up from about 5,500 in fiscal 2006 to more than 67,000 in fiscal 2014 — and those are just the incidents agencies have reported. Information security has been on the Government Accountability Office's High Risk list since 1997. Greg Wilshusen is director of information strategic issues at the GAO. He tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu why agencies are having a hard time coming up with risk-based cyber programs.
July 14, 2015 -
A new Government Accountability Office report suggests the Veterans Affairs Department is being too generous with some of its benefits. More vets are claiming unemployability benefits because of service-related injuries, and a greater proportion of them are past retirement age. That raises the question of what unemployability benefits are supposed to do in the first place. Daniel Bertoni is GAO's Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security. He joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to answer that question.
July 13, 2015 -
Thirty-nine out of 41 of the Veterans Affairs Department's outpatient leasing projects -- worth about $2.5 billion -- are running behind schedule. Delays range anywhere between six months to 13 years. Most of the delays happened before the VA began the lease agreement because the Veterans Health Administration didn't detail the project's requirements on time. Dave Wise is a director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office. He testified recently before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose the reason behind most of the delays and where in the leasing process things started to slow down.
July 06, 2015 -
The Defense Department and General Services Administration have an information sharing problem. They aren't sharing information about space that's available on military installations and about the agencies that could use it. Brian Lepore is director of defense capabilities and management issues at the GAO. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how the two agencies can improve that collaboration.
June 29, 2015