Education OIG Work on Improper Payments

In this episode, we talk about the Education OIG's work involving improper payments. Improper payments are payments made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason. Identifying and recovering improper payments is a statutory requirement for Federal agencies, as effective stewardship of taxpayer funds is a critical responsibility of every agency within the Federal Government. 

For fiscal year 2018, the Department’s improper payments estimate was about $6 billion, which mainly comes from two of its student aid programs: the Pell Grant program and the Direct Loan program. Per its Agency Financial Report, the Department says that improper payments in these programs are generally a result of administrative or process errors made by recipients of Federal money. 

That amount may sound very high, but it is not nearly as large as some other Federal programs at other agencies. But anytime you are talking about billions of taxpayer dollars, improper payments are an issue. In fact, it’s one of the Education OIG's top Management Challenges for the Department. Every year, we are required to identify and report on the most serious management challenges the Department faces. Improper payments is regularly one of the top challenges that we identify. 

The subject of improper payments may sound like a challenging topic for a short podcast, but we have two people who are up for the challenge. In this episode, you'll hear from Robert Janney, an auditor from our Philadelphia office, and Michelene Matthews, an auditor from our Atlanta office.

Read the full Education OIG audit report on The U.S. Department of Education’s Compliance with Improper Payment Reporting Requirements for Fiscal Year 2018.
Read the transcript for Eye on ED episode 5.