Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a review to determine whether VA complied with the requirements of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) for fiscal year (FY) 2017. VA met four of six IPERA requirements for FY 2017 by publishing the Agency Financial Report (AFR), performing risk assessments, reporting improper payment estimates, and providing information on corrective action plans. VA did not fully comply with two of six IPERA reporting requirements as specified by the Office of Management and Budget. Specifically, VA did not: • Report a gross improper payment rate of less than 10 percent for seven of 13 programs and activities that had an improper payment estimate in its FY 2017 AFR. Further, two of the seven programs have exceeded the 10 percent threshold for three consecutive fiscal years. The two programs’ improper payments were primarily due to administrative or process errors, insufficient documentation, or noncompliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements. • Meet annual reduction targets for seven programs and activities. In addition, four of the seven programs have not met reduction targets for three consecutive fiscal years and are repeat findings. These four programs’ improper payments were primarily due to administrative or process errors, insufficient documentation, or noncompliance with FAR requirements. The OIG recommended the Executives in Charge for the Office of the Under Secretary for Health and Veterans Benefits Administration develop a timeline to reduce improper payments under the 10 percent IPERA threshold and implement steps to reduce improper payments for its applicable programs and activities.

Other than the deficiency described in Finding 2, nothing came to our attention indicating that Orleans Parish did not design and implement policies and procedures that are likely to provide reasonable assurance that previously reported, Title I-relevant findings would not reoccur. Orleans Parish implemented a new financial management system, developed a grants management policy requiring adequately documented personnel and nonpersonnel expenditures, and revised its policies and procedures for purchasing and contracting, using district-held credit cards, and limiting user access to the financial management system (see Finding 1).However, Orleans Parish did not design and implement procedures that provided reasonable assurance that expenditures for services provided to nonpublic school students and charged to Title I funds were allowable. Specifically, Orleans Parish did not verify that educational services providers delivered the Title I services to nonpublic school students as asserted on invoices and supporting documentation. In fiscal year 2017 (July 1 through June 30), contracts with these educational services providers accounted for 26 percent ($3.7 million) of Orleans Parish’s $14.1 million Title I allocation.

The Office of Inspector General evaluated the Agency’s fiscal year 2017 compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act.