Waste Fraud And Mismanagement In The Federal Government High Risk Areas

The federal government is the world's largest and most complex entity, with about $3.5 trillion in outlays in the fiscal year of 2010, funding a broad array of programs and operations. This book examines government operations that have been identified as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address the economy, efficiency or effectiveness challenges. Since 1990, there have been over 50 areas designated as high risk and subsequently removed. Solutions to high risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, improve service to the public, and strengthen the performance and accountability of the U.S. government.

While the Department of Homeland Security's mission is critical, it is also critical that it keeps its finances in check because in order to protect the homeland we must maximize every dollar spent. Almost as soon as the Department's creation, the Government Accountability Office placed some of DHS's programs on its high-risk list, and today many remain. This list is developed every 2 years by watchdogs at GAO to identify areas in the Federal Government that are high-risk to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or are in the most need of broad reform. It is intended to draw attention to these areas to force agency leaders to improve. Unfortunately some of the programs identified include some of the Department's core functions such as acquisitions, management, financial management, information technology, human capital and management integration, as well as multi-agency challenges such as information sharing and cybersecurity. While the Department has devoted time to addressing GAO's high-risk areas, these reports continue to show examples of programs ignoring best practices and putting taxpayer dollars at risk.

The federal government is one of the world's largest and most complex entities: about $3.5 trillion in outlays in FY 2014 funded a broad array of programs and operations. GAO maintains a high-risk program to focus attention on government operations that it identifies as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. Since 1990, more than one-third of the areas previously designated as high risk have been removed from the list because sufficient progress was made in addressing the problems identified. This biennial update describes the status of high-risk areas listed in 2013 and identifies new high-risk areas needing attention by Congress and the executive branch. Solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, improve service to the public, and strengthen government performance and accountability. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.

The federal government is one of the world's largest and most complex entities: about $3.9 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2016 funded a broad array of programs and operations. GAO's high-risk program identifies government operations with greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. This biennial update describes the status of high-risk areas listed in 2015 and actions that are still needed to assure further progress, and identifies new high-risk areas needing attention by Congress and the executive branch. Solutions to high-risk problems potentially save billions of dollars, improve service to the public, and strengthen government performance and accountability. GAO uses five criteria to assess progress in addressing high-risk areas: (1) leadership commitment, (2) agency capacity, (3) an action plan, (4) monitoring efforts, and (5) demonstrated progress.

The federal government is the worlds largest and most complex entity, with about $3 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2008 funding a broad array of programs and operations. GAOs biennial reports on high-risk areas, done since 1990, are meant to bring focus to specific areas needing added attention. Areas are identified, in some cases, as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. GAO also identifies high-risk areas needing broad-based transformation to address major economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. In this 2009 update for the 111th Congress, GAO presents the status of high-risk areas listed in 2007 and identifies new high-risk areas warranting attention by Congress and the executive branch. Solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, dramatically improve service to the public, strengthen confidence and trust in the performance and accountability of the U.S. government, and ensure the ability of government to deliver on its promises. This report contains GAOs views on what remains to be done to bring about lasting solutions for each high-risk area. Perseverance by the executive branch in implementing GAOs recommended solutions and continued oversight and action by Congress are both essential to achieving progress.

The federal government is the worlds largest and most complex entity, with about $3 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2008 funding a broad array of programs and operations. GAOs biennial reports on high-risk areas, done since 1990, are meant to bring focus to specific areas needing added attention. Areas are identified, in some cases, as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. GAO also identifies high-risk areas needing broad-based transformation to address major economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. In this 2009 update for the 111th Congress, GAO presents the status of high-risk areas listed in 2007 and identifies new high-risk areas warranting attention by Congress and the executive branch. Solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, dramatically improve service to the public, strengthen confidence and trust in the performance and accountability of the U.S. government, and ensure the ability of government to deliver on its promises. This report contains GAOs views on what remains to be done to bring about lasting solutions for each high-risk area. Perseverance by the executive branch in implementing GAOs recommended solutions and continued oversight and action by Congress are both essential to achieving progress.

This report discusses the (1) high-risk areas of financial management, information technology, weapon systems acquisition, contract management, infrastructure, and inventory management; (2) underlying causes of these high-risk areas; and (3) overall strategy we believe is needed to eliminate them.