USDA responds to GAO testimony on school meals payments
July 22, 2014 | 09:37 PM
With a Government Accountability Office report citing inaccurate payment rates for school breakfast and lunch programs as two of the highest in the federal government likely to come up at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday, the Agriculture Department today defended the integrity of the school meals program, but also noted it is striving to improve the payment accuracy rate.
In testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Government Operations Subcommittee, a GAO official provided a chart that showed an error rate of 25 percent of payments for the school breakfast program in 2013. The errors resulted in $831 million in improper payments and a 15.7 percent error rate in the school lunch program, resulting in $1.8 billion in improper payments, both in fiscal year 2013, the report said.
The Office of Management and Budget has set a goal of reaching a government-wide improper payment error rate of 3 percent or less by the end of fiscal year 2016, GAO noted in the testimony.
But USDA noted that the GAO’s data collection was limited to case studies of 48 households participating in the National School Lunch Program in 25 districts.
“To select the 48 households, GAO matched school-meals eligibility data for the 2010-2011 school year from the 25 school districts to civilian executive-branch federal-employee payroll data,” USDA said.
“They chose the school year because it was the last school year in which adults’ Social Security numbers were collected,” USDA said. “They compared the data to federal-employee payroll data because it is one of a limited number of datasets in which centralized salary, address, Social Security number, and employment data are available.”
USDA also noted that GAO had acknowledged that the data could not be generalized to all participants because of limitations in the sampling.
“USDA is committed to providing schools the support they need as they work to improve program integrity so that every program dollar is being used for children who qualify,” a Food and Nutrition Service spokesman noted.
“We appreciate that GAO recently recognized that USDA has already taken many steps to help schools make sure that students who are not eligible for free and reduced meals are not receiving them. USDA also recently agreed with GAO’s recommendations for additional steps that can be taken to improve program integrity, and will work to implement them in a manner that does not compromise access for low-income families or unduly increase burden on schools.”
An FNS source also said that the rate of children directly certified for school meals has increased as opposed to those who qualify by virtue of participating in another program for low-income families, and that school districts with a record of inaccuracies are now required to conduct a second review of applications for accuracy before providing free or reduced price benefits.
▪ General Accountability Office — Improper Payments: Government-Wide Estimates and Reduction Strategies
▪ Federal Register — National School Lunch Program: Independent Review of Applications Required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — Final rule
In testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Government Operations Subcommittee, a GAO official provided a chart that showed an error rate of 25 percent of payments for the school breakfast program in 2013. The errors resulted in $831 million in improper payments and a 15.7 percent error rate in the school lunch program, resulting in $1.8 billion in improper payments, both in fiscal year 2013, the report said.
The Office of Management and Budget has set a goal of reaching a government-wide improper payment error rate of 3 percent or less by the end of fiscal year 2016, GAO noted in the testimony.
But USDA noted that the GAO’s data collection was limited to case studies of 48 households participating in the National School Lunch Program in 25 districts.
“To select the 48 households, GAO matched school-meals eligibility data for the 2010-2011 school year from the 25 school districts to civilian executive-branch federal-employee payroll data,” USDA said.
“They chose the school year because it was the last school year in which adults’ Social Security numbers were collected,” USDA said. “They compared the data to federal-employee payroll data because it is one of a limited number of datasets in which centralized salary, address, Social Security number, and employment data are available.”
USDA also noted that GAO had acknowledged that the data could not be generalized to all participants because of limitations in the sampling.
“USDA is committed to providing schools the support they need as they work to improve program integrity so that every program dollar is being used for children who qualify,” a Food and Nutrition Service spokesman noted.
“We appreciate that GAO recently recognized that USDA has already taken many steps to help schools make sure that students who are not eligible for free and reduced meals are not receiving them. USDA also recently agreed with GAO’s recommendations for additional steps that can be taken to improve program integrity, and will work to implement them in a manner that does not compromise access for low-income families or unduly increase burden on schools.”
An FNS source also said that the rate of children directly certified for school meals has increased as opposed to those who qualify by virtue of participating in another program for low-income families, and that school districts with a record of inaccuracies are now required to conduct a second review of applications for accuracy before providing free or reduced price benefits.
▪ General Accountability Office — Improper Payments: Government-Wide Estimates and Reduction Strategies
▪ Federal Register — National School Lunch Program: Independent Review of Applications Required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — Final rule
