U.S. Department of Education's Compliance with Executive Order 13520, "Reducing Improper Payments" for Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013

We found that for both FY 2012 and FY 2013, the Department complied with Executive Order 13520, adequately addressed improper payment risks, and described an adequate level of oversight to reduce and recapture improper Pell Grant payments. However, we found that the Department still had not addressed monitoring and oversight of the most significant root cause of potential improper payments in the Pell Grant program—inaccurate self-reported income for Pell Grant applicants who (1) do not use the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool when completing their FAFSA and (2) are not selected for verification of self-reported income.