Since fiscal 2015, the federal government’s 73 inspectors general have identified $87 billion in potential savings that could be realized if agencies eliminated questionable expenditures and made more efficient use of federal funds.
While agencies have adopted many of these findings and addressed issues of waste, fraud and abuse revealed in IG audits and investigations, thousands of recommendations issued every year are not implemented.
The Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general, for example, is tracking more than 1,200 open recommendations. As of May 2017, the HHS IG’s open recommendations included reducing tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid and home health care fraud; protecting Medicare beneficiaries from opioid addiction that cost the Part D drug program in excess of $4 billion in 2015; and clamping down on millions of dollars in improper payments to a child care and development fund.
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