Gov’t Improperly Paid Out $125 Billion in FY 2010, More Than State Dept.’s Budget

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CNSnews:

(CNSNews.com) - At a time of growing concern about government spending, the federal government made $125 billion in “improper payments” in 2010, greater than the budget of any federal agency except the Defense Department. The Departments of State, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services all have budgets below $125 billion.

Federal agencies reported improper payments estimated at $125.4 billion in fiscal year 2010, an increase of $16.2 billion from the $109.2 billion estimate in fiscal 2009, the Government Accountability Office said. Ninety-four percent of those payments came from social spending programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, GAO said in its April 15 report.

The GAO defines improper payments as “overpayments, underpayments, and payments that were not adequately documented,” as well as fraud. It also noted that improper payments are not necessarily fraudulent, only that they represent instances where the government did not follow its own internal rules for spending taxpayers’ money.

The $125 billion in improper payments came from 70 different programs across 20 federal agencies. “This estimate represents about 5.5 percent of the $2.3 trillion of reported outlays for the related programs in fiscal year 2010,” GAO said.