USDA IG offers Aderholt questions for Vilsack
February 13, 2015 |06:18 PM
Agriculture Department Inspector General Phyllis Fong told House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., today that he should ask Vilsack about management issues, improper payments and new information technology systems.
After Fong testified to the subcommittee that her office’s “broader concerns” about USDA agencies are focused on “how they monitor their programs and ensure that participants comply with requirements,” Aderholt noted that Vilsack is scheduled to testify before the committee within the next two weeks and requested her suggestions on what he should be asked.
Fong suggested that every USDA agency has “challenges” regarding “transparent and fair procedures” and making sure that funds get to the people who are supposed to get them. Fong added that USDA’s rate of improper payments is not declining, especially in the programs that the agency itself has identified as “high risk.” (See link for a list of the high-risk programs.)
Fong added that USDA is ramping up a lot of new information technology systems, and there are security and management issues related to them.
Aderholt also noted in his opening statement that his No. 1 priority for the subcommittee this year is improving the management of USDA agencies and programs. Other goals include: targeting funds to the most important programs and functions; and promoting U.S. agriculture, free and fair markets and safe food and medicines.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., noted that USDA is not in compliance with the Improper Payment Information Act.
Fong said that USDA officials are “very much aware of what they have to do to be in compliance with the act,” but that they are behind in setting reduction targets. Among the biggest problems, Fong said, are the Risk Management Agency and the National School Lunch Program.
The improper payment rate at the Food and Nutrition Service is only 3 to 4 percent, Fong said, but in some of the farm program agencies, the rate is in the teens or close to 20 percent.
Gil Harden, assistant inspector general for audit, said that the improper payment rate is lower in the Farm Service Agency. Ann Coffey, acting assistant inspector general for investigations, said the office is planning more work on FSA in the future.
Aderholt also noted that taxpayers had invested $400 million to modernize the information technology system at FSA, and that both the IG’s office and the Government Accountability Office are investigating “what went wrong” with that project. Fong said the IG report on that issue should be released in May and will have recommendations for changes.
But on USDA’s performance on payments in comparison with other federal departments, Fong said USDA is “in the middle.”
Fong’s testimony noted that President Barack Obama’s budget request for the USDA Office of the Inspector General totals $98.9 million and includes $1.6 million to create a Center of Excellence, which would review agency program vulnerabilities and improve the department’s oversight of improper payments.
Fong noted that her office has received $435.1 million in appropriations over the past five years, but its audits and investigations have raised $7.9 billion — a rate of cost savings and recoveries of approximately $18.50 for every dollar the office has received.
Several subcommittee members expressed concern about whether USDA agencies comply with the recommendations that follow IG audits and investigations.
Harden said that if agencies do not fulfill their promises to make changes, higher-level officials and Congress are informed about it — but the punishments are limited.
“I don’t have a hammer that I can go and hit them with,” Harden said, but he added that Vilsack “has been very open to what we have been saying.”
On specific programs, Fong noted that her office devoted 57 percent of its investigative resources to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, which cost $82 billion in fiscal year 2014 and made up 54 percent of USDA’s budget.
SNAP-related criminal investigations resulted in 484 convictions and $77.7 million in “monetary results.”
In its upcoming work, Fong said, her office will determine if the Food and Nutrition Service has adequate controls to ensure that SNAP error rates are accurate and if the agency is taking adequate action to reduce these rates.
Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, noted that Fong had asked for money to study antibiotic resistance and said that proposals like that one “cause farmers and ranchers some uncertainty” because they view such studies as “political science and not sound science.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, questioned whether the meat processed in pork plants involved in Food Safety and Inspection Service pilot projects is safe. Fong replied that one of the IG’s “main findings is that USDA needs to take a better look at that pilot program to see if it is actually working and whether it is producing the results the agency wants.”
▪ USDA — Reducing Improper Payments Fiscal Year 2013 High-Dollar Overpayments Report Review
— Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act – USDA Compliance Review, Fiscal Year 2013
— Statement of the Honorable Phyllis K. Fong, inspector general
— USDA Office of the Inspector General: Transcripts
After Fong testified to the subcommittee that her office’s “broader concerns” about USDA agencies are focused on “how they monitor their programs and ensure that participants comply with requirements,” Aderholt noted that Vilsack is scheduled to testify before the committee within the next two weeks and requested her suggestions on what he should be asked.
Fong suggested that every USDA agency has “challenges” regarding “transparent and fair procedures” and making sure that funds get to the people who are supposed to get them. Fong added that USDA’s rate of improper payments is not declining, especially in the programs that the agency itself has identified as “high risk.” (See link for a list of the high-risk programs.)
Fong added that USDA is ramping up a lot of new information technology systems, and there are security and management issues related to them.
Aderholt also noted in his opening statement that his No. 1 priority for the subcommittee this year is improving the management of USDA agencies and programs. Other goals include: targeting funds to the most important programs and functions; and promoting U.S. agriculture, free and fair markets and safe food and medicines.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., noted that USDA is not in compliance with the Improper Payment Information Act.
Fong said that USDA officials are “very much aware of what they have to do to be in compliance with the act,” but that they are behind in setting reduction targets. Among the biggest problems, Fong said, are the Risk Management Agency and the National School Lunch Program.
The improper payment rate at the Food and Nutrition Service is only 3 to 4 percent, Fong said, but in some of the farm program agencies, the rate is in the teens or close to 20 percent.
Gil Harden, assistant inspector general for audit, said that the improper payment rate is lower in the Farm Service Agency. Ann Coffey, acting assistant inspector general for investigations, said the office is planning more work on FSA in the future.
Aderholt also noted that taxpayers had invested $400 million to modernize the information technology system at FSA, and that both the IG’s office and the Government Accountability Office are investigating “what went wrong” with that project. Fong said the IG report on that issue should be released in May and will have recommendations for changes.
But on USDA’s performance on payments in comparison with other federal departments, Fong said USDA is “in the middle.”
Fong’s testimony noted that President Barack Obama’s budget request for the USDA Office of the Inspector General totals $98.9 million and includes $1.6 million to create a Center of Excellence, which would review agency program vulnerabilities and improve the department’s oversight of improper payments.
Fong noted that her office has received $435.1 million in appropriations over the past five years, but its audits and investigations have raised $7.9 billion — a rate of cost savings and recoveries of approximately $18.50 for every dollar the office has received.
Several subcommittee members expressed concern about whether USDA agencies comply with the recommendations that follow IG audits and investigations.
Harden said that if agencies do not fulfill their promises to make changes, higher-level officials and Congress are informed about it — but the punishments are limited.
“I don’t have a hammer that I can go and hit them with,” Harden said, but he added that Vilsack “has been very open to what we have been saying.”
On specific programs, Fong noted that her office devoted 57 percent of its investigative resources to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, which cost $82 billion in fiscal year 2014 and made up 54 percent of USDA’s budget.
SNAP-related criminal investigations resulted in 484 convictions and $77.7 million in “monetary results.”
In its upcoming work, Fong said, her office will determine if the Food and Nutrition Service has adequate controls to ensure that SNAP error rates are accurate and if the agency is taking adequate action to reduce these rates.
Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, noted that Fong had asked for money to study antibiotic resistance and said that proposals like that one “cause farmers and ranchers some uncertainty” because they view such studies as “political science and not sound science.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, questioned whether the meat processed in pork plants involved in Food Safety and Inspection Service pilot projects is safe. Fong replied that one of the IG’s “main findings is that USDA needs to take a better look at that pilot program to see if it is actually working and whether it is producing the results the agency wants.”
▪ USDA — Reducing Improper Payments Fiscal Year 2013 High-Dollar Overpayments Report Review
— Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act – USDA Compliance Review, Fiscal Year 2013
— Statement of the Honorable Phyllis K. Fong, inspector general
— USDA Office of the Inspector General: Transcripts
