U.S. Department of the Interior’s Compliance With the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 in Its Fiscal Year 2019 Agency Financial Report

In accordance with guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, we reviewed the “Payment Integrity” section in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Agency Financial Report (AFR) for fiscal year (FY) 2019. Our objective was to determine whether the Department met the requirements of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) and accurately and completely reported on improper payments in its AFR and accompanying materials. We found that the Department complied with all applicable IPERA reporting requirements for FY 2019, namely the first two requirements of six. We did not consider the four remaining IPERA reporting requirements applicable for this reporting period because the Department did not identify any programs that were susceptible to significant improper payments. We identified a minor reporting error. Specifically, the Department reported in its FY 2019 APR that it had risk assessed 93 programs when it had only risk assessed 86. Seven of the programs reported for FY 2019 were risk assessed in FY 2018. However, this reporting error does not change our determination that the Department complied with the requirement.