Department of Homeland Security's FY 2016 Compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 and Executive Order 13520, Reducing Improper Payments

We determined that DHS did not fully comply with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) because it did not publish accurate accompanying materials to the Agency Financial Report (AFR) as required by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance.  The Department also did not meet its annual reduction targets established for each high-risk program.  DHS did comply with Executive Order 13520 by properly compiling and making available to the public DHS’ FY 2016 Quarterly High-Dollar Overpayment reports. Additionally, we determined DHS did not properly perform oversight of the components’ improper payment testing and reporting.  We made five recommendations that would help DHS’ Risk Management and Assurance Division (RM&A) strengthen its oversight and review procedures for IPERA risk assessments.  We also recommended that RM&A follows OMB requirements to comply with IPERA.