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Agency Snapshot:
Environmental Protection Agency The Administration is eager to reduce annual improper payments and is working with Federal and State partners, Congress, and other stakeholders, to reduce the government-wide amount of errors without negatively impacting citizen access to needed programs. "Improper payments" occur when funds go to the wrong recipient, the recipient receives the incorrect amount of funds, documentation is not available to support a payment, or the recipient uses funds in an improper manner. The government must better ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently. You can learn more about our efforts to reduce improper payments at the newly launched PaymentAccuracy.gov.
Reduce Improper Payments
The Administration is working with Federal and State partners, Congress, and other stakeholders to reduce government-wide improper payments without negatively impacting citizen access to needed programs. "Improper payments" can be overpayments or underpayments, and occur when funds go to the wrong recipient, the recipient receives the incorrect amount of funds, documentation is not available to support a payment, or the recipient uses funds in an improper manner. The government must better ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently. EPA's improper payment rate is less than 1% of annual payments, less than the government-wide average of 2.5%.
The Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs) are programs that EPA has determined may be susceptible to significant improper payments (specifically, improper payments greater than $10 million and over 2.5 percent of all annual payments made under that program, or improper payments over $100 million regardless of the improper payment rate). However, for FY2010, the improper payment rate for these programs was less than 1% at about .04%. The agency will continue to be vigilant in monitoring these and all EPA programs for improper payments.
| Program | Total Payments | Improper Payments | % Improper Payment Rate | % Improper Payment Target Rate 2011 | % Improper Payment Target Rate 2012 | % Improper Payment Target Rate 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FHWA Highway Planning/Construction | $48.1 B | $450.3 M | 0.9 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.75 |
| Clean & Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) | $3.6 B | $14.2 M | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
Government-wide Recapture of Improper Payments
In addition to reducing payments made improperly, we must work to recapture any improper payments quickly. Under the Recovery Auditing Act (Section 831 of the 2002 Defense Authorization Act), agencies with more than $500 million in annual contract outlays were required to review their contract payments for improper payments. The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 expands these payment recapture audit activities further. Since fiscal year 2004, agencies have been reporting on their efforts to identify and recapture improper contract payments in their annual financial reports. This metric shows the total amount of improper contract payments recovered by all agencies in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, as well as our government-wide goal for recapturing improper payments in the future. While the Administration has set a government-wide target of recapturing at least $2 billion in improper contract outlays between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2012, agency-specific targets have not yet been developed.
