WASHINGTON – Senator Claire McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is calling for answers on what the government’s main support agency is doing to identify and reduce improper payments.
“It’s highly concerning that this agency failed to report over $30 million in improper payments just last year,” said McCaskill, former Missouri State Auditor. “I’m committed to holding the government accountable so that Missourians’ hard-earned tax dollars aren’t wasted.”
A recent report from the Government Services Administration (GSA)’s Office of the Inspector General found that the agency was failing to follow requirements to cut down on improper payments, and identified problems with how GSA reports those payments. “While I am encouraged that GSA has agreed to implement all of the Inspector General’s recommendations, the agency qualified that response by noting that remedial actions ‘will be implemented as feasible,’” McCaskill wrote in a letter to Tim Horne, the GSA Acting Administrator. McCaskill asked for updates by July 10, 2017 on what the agency is doing to reduce improper payments, including “what factors you anticipate may impact the ‘feasibility’ of implementing Inspector General recommendations” and updates on GSA’s progress in implementing Inspector General recommendations.
Since her time as Missouri State Auditor, McCaskill has been a leading voice in Missouri and Washington for cutting wasteful government spending. Last month, McCaskill-backed bills to prohibit bonuses to government employees who have engaged in serious misconduct and crack down on misuse of federal agency travel and purchase cards spending were unanimously approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. McCaskill has also expanded whistleblower protections to government contractors, subcontractors, and others who the federal government directly or indirectly hires through bipartisan bills that have been signed into law. During her first term in the Senate, McCaskill waged a successful six-year effort to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in wartime contracting.
Read McCaskill’s letter to the General Services Administration HERE.
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