USDA's Compliance with Improper Payment Requirements for Fiscal Year 2024

We recommend that FNS continue to carry out the plan described in its S&EMP in order to publish IP and UP estimates for FNS SFSP in the accompanying materials to future annual financial statements, which includes PaymentAccuracy.gov. In the meantime, we recommend that FNS evaluate if some payments should be considered unknown payments by devising a method to determine the amount of potential IPs and report these as UPs until the above-mentioned methodology has been finalized. If FNS is unable to devise a method to do this, we recommend that this is disclosed in PaymentAccuracy.gov.
For each year of non-compliance:
FNS should provide information for SFSP describing the actions that the agency will take to come into compliance. This information should be published on PaymentAccuracy.gov and serve as the plan for what FNS will submit to the appropriate authorizing and appropriations committees of Congress as prescribed by M-21-19. This should include:
• Measurable milestones to be accomplished in order to achieve compliance for the program
• The designation of a senior agency official who shall be accountable for the progress of the executive agency in coming into compliance for each program
• The establishment of an accountability mechanism, such as a performance agreement, with appropriate incentives and consequences tied to the success of the senior agency official in leading the efforts of the agency to come into compliance for the program

We recommend FNS continue its efforts to develop an improved estimate that considers meal counting errors in the publication of a complete improper payment rates for the FNS CACFP-FDCH program and update its S&EMP to consider payments that have not been determined as either proper or improper during their analysis, as unknown payments.
For each year of non-compliance:
FNS should provide information for SFSP describing the actions that the agency will take to come into compliance. This information should be published on PaymentAccuracy.gov and serve as the plan for what FNS will submit to the appropriate authorizing and appropriations committees of Congress as prescribed by M-21-19. This should include:
• Updated measurable milestones to be accomplished in order to achieve compliance for each program
• The role and actions of the designated senior agency official accountable for the progress of the agency in coming into compliance
• The establishment of an accountability mechanism, such as a performance agreement, with appropriate incentives and consequences tied to the success of the senior agency official in leading the efforts of the agency to come into compliance for each program

We recommend USDA and FSA update its policies and procedures over the reporting of expiring programs to identify and report root causes of improper payments in order to formulate corrective actions that are focused on the core issues that are under the control of the agency.

FSA: We recommend that management take the following actions to ensure compliance with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019:
• Maintain a focus on continuous improvement in the development and implementation of new mitigation strategies (e.g., examination of existing controls in place and the implementation of more effective controls) to decrease IP and UP rates to a tolerable rate each year. If a program’s IP and UP rate does not improve or increases, take sufficient steps to identify root causes and implement appropriate corrective action that will reduce the rates year over year until the rate is below 10%.
• Where applicable, and cost effective, implement automated enhancements to better prevent and detect errors.
For each year of non-compliance:
FSA should provide in the OMB Annual Data Call revised information for CCC ARC/PLC, CCC CFAP, CCC NAP, and FSA ECP-Disasters describing the actions that the agency will take to come into compliance. This information should be published on PaymentAccuracy.gov and serve as the plan of what FSA will submit to the appropriate authorizing and appropriations committees of Congress as prescribed by M-21-19. FSA should consider revising the following:
• Updated measurable milestones to be accomplished in order to achieve compliance for each program
• The role and actions of the designated senior agency official accountable for the progress of the agency in coming into compliance
• The establishment of an accountability mechanism, such as a performance agreement, with appropriate incentives and consequences tied to the success of the senior agency official in leading the efforts of the agency to come into compliance for each program
For 2nd consecutive year of non-compliance:
FSA should propose to the director of OMB in its next budget submission additional program integrity proposals for CCC NAP that would help the program come into compliance. This process will unfold as part of the annual development of the President’s budget. In the budget submission, the agency should describe how each proposal would help the program come into compliance.
If the director of OMB determines that additional funding would help the program become compliant, the agency should obligate an amount of additional funding determined by the director of OMB to intensify compliance efforts. When providing additional funding for compliance efforts, the agency should:
• Exercise reprogramming or transfer authority to provide additional funding to meet the level determined by the director of OMB
• Submit a request to Congress for additional reprogramming or transfer authority if additional funding is needed to meet the full level of funding determined by the director of OMB
For the 3rd consecutive year of non-compliance:
FSA should submit to the appropriate authorizing and appropriations committees of Congress, OMB, and the Comptroller General of the United States a report on ECP-Disasters that includes:
• Reauthorization proposals for each discretionary program that has not been in compliance for three consecutive years; and/or
• Compliance for three consecutive years into compliance.
If the agency determines that the two actions above will not bring the program into compliance, then the report must provide:
• A description of the actions that the agency is undertaking to bring the program into compliance; and
• A timeline for when the program will achieve compliance based on the actions described.

FNS: We recommend that the agency work with OCFO in taking the following actions to ensure compliance with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019:
• Maintain a focus on continuous improvement in the development and implementation of new mitigation strategies (e.g., examination of existing controls in place and the implementation of more effective controls) to decrease IP and UP rates to a tolerable rate each year. If a program’s IP and UP rate does not improve or increases, take sufficient steps to identify root causes and implement appropriate corrective action that will reduce the rates year over year until the rate is below 10%.
• Where applicable and cost effective, implement automated enhancements to better prevent and detect errors
For each year of non-compliance:
FNS should provide in the OMB Annual Data Call revised information for SNAP describing the actions that the agency will take to come into compliance. This information should be published on PaymentAccuracy.gov and serve as the plan of what FNS will submit to the appropriate authorizing and appropriations committees of Congress as prescribed by M-21-19. FNS should consider revising the following:
• Updated measurable milestones to be accomplished in order to achieve compliance for each program
• The role and actions of the designated senior agency official accountable for the progress of the agency in coming into compliance
• The establishment of an accountability mechanism, such as a performance agreement, with appropriate incentives and consequences tied to the success of the senior agency official in leading the efforts of the agency to come into compliance for each program.
For 2nd consecutive year of non-compliance:
FNS should propose to the director of OMB in its next budget submission additional program integrity proposals for SNAP that would help the program come into compliance. This process will unfold as part of the annual development of the President’s budget. In the budget submission, the agency should describe how each proposal would help the program come into compliance.
If the director of OMB determines that additional funding would help the program become compliant, the agency should obligate an amount of additional funding determined by the director of OMB to intensify compliance efforts. When providing additional funding for compliance efforts, the agency should:
• Exercise reprogramming or transfer authority to provide additional funding to meet the level determined by the director of OMB; and
• Submit a request to Congress for additional reprogramming or transfer authority if additional funding is needed to meet the full level of funding determined by the director of OMB.