Transcripts For CSPAN2 Washington 20240706 : vimarsana.com

Companies and more including charter communication. Clarks charter is progeny recognized on the best internet providers. Were just Getting Started to reach those who need it most. Quick target communication support cspan as a public service. Along with these other television providers. Give you a front row seat to todimock. The Government Accountability Office Managing Director for Strategic Issues at the gao. Thank you for comingff by. I think its a pleasure to be here. Tech about the height risk a list explain the work of gao for maybe those who do not know what you do pay. Indefinitely. Gao is a congressional watchdog who work for congress to evaluating federal programs and financial audits, investigations and effective governments. We are objective, factbased nonpartisan and independent. Recommendations to federal agencies as well as sometimes recommendations to congress to make government work better. Next to that end he put out something called a height risk list how did thatt come about . It has existed for more than three decades. Started in 1990 and an oversight agenda to attention to the areas at greater greatest risk for mismanagement or in need of fundamental transformational. We started the list in 1990. Since that time we have been issuing a new update at the beginning of every new congress. So that congress can be aware of the core issues are that really command their attention. And as we do that we are highlighting areas that are being added to thehi list. Areas being removed from the list. And for each of those areas we are showing what progress has been made. By the eight meeting the requirements we set out . Is there more work to be done . And within that figure gao. Wcl the underlying work that informs all of this. Everything on the list. If you want to dive deep this a lot of detail there for you to the facts and figures behind it. You can also see recommendations we have major federal agencies as well as agencies were congress can take action to improve government operation for. Generally what the program on the list . Or a combination of factors that go into deciding what goes on the list. These include qualitative and quantitative factors starting with the quantitative factors that has to be something that is 1 billion or more that at risk of fraud, waste, abuse may be improper payment has occurred or is at risk of occurring. N things that are at risk of threat that Life National security as well as privacy. So look at all the specters in combination as well as her ongoing oversight of federal programs and also foresight for things we think are on the horizon that congress should be paying attention too. That all goes into the determination of what his highrisk area. The broad category and this list would coordination Public Health emergency being on that list. Enforcement of tax laws, human capitol the Defense Department weapons acts, improving and modernizing Disability Program on the federal level the management of the federal prison system in the nation security. Starting with the first one when it comes to Public Health emergencies was a specifically covid related or their other factors and looking at this . We have lifted Public Health emergencies over the last couple of years. That is a part of it. This iss an area we added out of cycle. We added in the middle of a congressional session in 2,022,000 part for congress to be aware of this. We also wanted to focus the agencys attention on this area. F health and human services, leadership of and coordination of Public Health emergencies, as well as responses and recoveries from national disasters, this is informed by the most recent experience. It goes back more than a decade as we look at sica and ebola and other Public Health emergencies across the entire federal, and then also with state and local governments and private sector engtgt entities. How does that directly relate then to looking at the pandemic issue . Looking at the pandemic issue it plays out in a number of areas and another area out of cycle in 2022 we added to the high riskk list Unemployment Insurance benefits. This again, is an area that we had done a broad range of work on over many years, but that was really a spotlight on this program during the pandemic because there were millions of people inn need of unemployment assistance. Ic and so as that was happening, there were a lot of difficulties and providing the administrative operations for this federal state program to provide that assistanceni effectively and efficiently unfortunately there was also a fair amount of fraud along the way where people who didnt qualify for benefits were receiving those benefits so we added that to the list last year in 2022. Apology i imagine some of the response from various agencies doing this in heat of battle ultimately it will sit some time before we realize what weve done as far as putting out money or things that we shouldnt have. Sm it is always attention because, of course, there was an emergency and congress provided assistance and agencies wanted to act quickly. But at the same time, you really need to build it in that accountability at the outset and have some kind of smooth certification system that requires documentation to make sure that the people who really need the assistance receive it and that the bad actors the fraud stores dont receive it. In general if theyve put out money that shouldnt have been put out whats the potential of getting it back . Have they told you the potential there . We work closely with the agencies and closely with federal agency and counterparts that the individual executive Branch Agencies and when appropriate we also make referrals to Law Enforcement agencies. So some funds have been recovered. Some funds unfortunately probably will never be recovered, and these effortses are ongoing but to identify fraudware happens buts to recover whatever we can as a federal government. Michelle here from the gal the Government Accountability office for the discussion taking a look at their high risk you can phoned it online and cspan if you want to look at some of those categories to the list and if you want call and ask questions about what theyve discovered 2027484,000 and 7481,000 one for independent and republicans and if you want to tex us a question or a comment you can do that, at 2027488003 one of the other categories was tax law in particularly enforcement of tax law what the gao find . This is an area that was added to the original list back in 1909 and remained on the list and it is important to point out even for some of these areas that were charter members you will there has been incredible progress in various ways over the ensuing decade. So in this case there are really two areas were looking at one is the tax gap which is difference between taxes owed and taxes paid. And trying to narrow that gap so that the funding that is due to the federal government has people file their taxes is actually received. And the second area is Identity Theft refund fraud where people are claiming others refunds when theyrefr not really their refus and so weve been working with irs on a number of areas including these and we have a number of recommendations to irs. That agency recently received new leadership and so he is in place and as the new commissioner as Internal Revenue service irss has a new strategic that is playing out as we speak, and then congress provided about 80 billion dollars to the irs through the inflation reduction act. And those funds will help both fillin gaps that have been cread through some budget crunches over more than a decade. So theyve already hired 5,000 people. They have plans to hire 5,000 more it this year alone. And as all of that is happening theyre also working to employment gao recommendations. That second part of the how does that work and what was discoveredly there . Refund fraud. There have been a number of efforts put into place so for example, if you are a worker who hadto a w2 that becomes availabe sooner than it did a couple of yearsat ago and that then allows you too file for your taxes sooner than you might have been able to say a decade ago. And that has been somewhat successful. Another thing that is underway is as we have recommend, recommended irs to take action own this that theres still more work to be done in terms of digitizing paper returns and that then allows that return to be tracked as it goes through the review process. J and to first one as far as the tax gapt is this just a simple enforcement of finding bheem owe taxes making sure they pay . Em itis is that but then also things such as complex large partnerships where you have multipley entities that are part of a return corporate return. Soav it can be very complex butt is also the individual tax filing as well. Michelle here for this conversation first call for you comes from cornelius youre on with our t guest from Government Accountability office. Go ahead. Yeah ms. Michelle i used to work for the federal viewer prison i saw you have a federal Bureau Prison on your list and essentially they abuse me along with the fbi theyve sent me up and everything. So what i want to know from the government of Accountability Office is if they use their money to set me up, is there anything yall can do thank you pedro thank you cspan. Thawnch for calling and thank you for that question. The caller talked about federal prison system management a new area that we added to the list this year. I am story hear about what you have experienced an you call attention to part of thes reason for the addition of the Bureau Prison system to the high risk list this year. And that is staffingng challenges, and that creates issues for both the inmates as well as for the staff in the Bureau Prison system in terms of their safety. So that is part of the problem and then in addition to that its the program that are in place throughgh the bureau of prisons to make sure that as inmates are serving their time there are opportunities in place for them to work towards their relief and able to become productivele contributors to society and knowing what works and what doesnt along the way. So our leaders comptroller general of the United States has met with new leader of the bureau of prison system just having a leader in place is good news there were 6 leaders and six years, there is now a leader, she iser committed to working with us to move forward on these areas. And we look forward to working with the bureau of prisons as they implement our recommendations. Story in the New York Times one of the things they highlight they say nowhere has been more a problem inin hiring when it coms to bureau of prisonnings about 160,000 inmates at 122 prison camps and employing a work force about 3400 people who everybody less in state and county correction workers. Human capital issues are certainly substantial for the bureau of prison systems and, in fact, for 22 of the 37 areas on the high risk list skill gaps are part of the reason why areas are on high risk list so affects all sector of society it includes both hiring as well as retention, as well as just helping people understand what positions are available. In this case, its the Office Personnel management but it is at the center of government both for their own Human Capital challenges but also revising other federal agencies and what they can do to hire and retain people who are dedicated to public service. So thiss is an area that we again, have seen progress in. There is a director at the office of personal management so that is good news theres that leadership commitment at the top. But then goingel forward, we wil continue to work with them as they are working on their own Human Capitale challenges and also working with federal agencies across the government as they are trying to meet their hiring challenges. Lets hear from john jonathon from minnesota, democrat line. Yeah. Two things im fromll a rural district, of course, many farmers here when the ppe or being given out during the pandemic some of the farmers werere splitting their farms to have the mother that 20,000 or father got 20,000 and son got 20,000. Some of that money was to go to payroll, then they used that money to pay each other as employees, and further more the bankers told these people and theyre good republicans. You know conservative people the bankers told them do not pay those loans back. They wont come after you so i think that was a huge fraud going on and second of all farmers are getting every year every farmer in this country has 30 dollars paid by the taxpayers towards their insurance 30 per acre and own 10,000 acres not uncommon anymore thats what 30,000 dollars right off the top. And it doesnt matter the fact that we have now had three years of the highest Commodity Prices in the history of the United States. These guys are floating in money. And theyre still being subsidized. Ys okay well leave it there. Let our guest respond to that. Well thank you for the call ill respond specifically to the questions you raise about the Paycheck Protection Program and that was also the Economic Injury disaster loan program. And these are areas that were also very much focused on and collaboration with our other accountability partners. Theres a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee as well as the Inspector General Community Across the government so in a case where you or others,ne others who are listeng have noticed fraud, you can certainly reach out to gao at fraud net at gao. Gov or go to our websiteao to find more informationto about how to repot fraud. Similarly, for example, at usda department of agriculture if theres a specific fraud issue you can reach ototheir Inspector General and that will help begin the process to respond to the fraud and to responsibly use taxpayer dollars. You talk about action plans or agency that try to resolve theeshzs that you bring up. What makes a good action plan in gao opinion . There are a couple things action plan is one of the five criteria that we use assessing high risk areas so first, you need that leadership commitment that i plengs to make sure that the person at the top in their team arere dedicated to initiatg action. And then you need to have capacity that includes not only leader but also the other staff who are at the agencs well as the funding and the Management Systems and the technology. And then you need to have the action plan, and that action plan needs to include goals, metrics and a way to monitor thate plan so that you see whrrnght youre making progress over time. And then the final criteria that we use is demonstrative progress. So leadership, capacity, action plans with which needs to include those metrics, milestone, goals and then monitoring allll of that to hopefully in the end be able to demonstrate some progress. Lets hear from frank frank is in chicago independent line. Hey, good morning i need a quick question for you appreciate learning all of this i saw that the d. O. D. Was on the list in a couple of areas particularly weapons acquiring weapons, Financial Management they never passed an audit and they cant be audited what happened to your report as youre reviewing department of pentagon, the state department, i kind of want you to go more into that action plan because you know they spent about almost a trillion dollars of our money every year. Which caller well leave it there. So caller has landed on really importante. Issues that e are focused on and we work very closely within d. O. D. To both acknowledge the actions to have happened but also acknowledge what needs to happen and getting to a clean financial audit remains elusive unfortunately that is something that we have very much focused on that we raise with congress that we work with the department of defense on, and then another area that the caller mentioned is an area that has been on gao high risk list since its inception in 1990, and that is d. O. D. Weapon systems acquisition, and there it really gets down to basics that are so important to any acquisition at any federal agency. Cs performance, cost, and schedule, and when the cost are out of control, when the schedule is not met when the goals are not met, that signals a problem. And although progress has been made in a number of areas over the decades, that just given the scale of what d. O. D. Does and number of evolving Weapons Systems that it acquires it is an area that we remain very focused on. Ac if you go to the website ad look under that category part of it says that legislation such as acquisition reforms from the 2016 and 2017 prompted d. O. D. To take actions to improve outcome of systems costing more taking longer to develop and performing lower than anticipated levels you elaborate on that . Definitely so what you land on is something that does happen when we issue the high risk list is that it becomes kind of a catalyst for action. It becomes a road map for congress toa take action and conduct oversight, conduct congressional hearings right oversight letters to executive brarnlg agencies in this Case Congress also passed legislation which is sometimes necessary in order to c prompt that action or to allow that action to happen. And so thats what has happened here that is good news. But more needs to be done. H and what will be the recommendation because you make recommendations what would you rmed on that front then . On that front we are continuing to monitor the efforts that are underway. We