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GAO-02-964R 1 (2002-07-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamai0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 July 19, 2002 The Honorable Stephen Horn Chairman, Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Government Reform House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter responds to the question you raised during your May 9, 2002, hearing on Oversight of the Management of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs: Are the Complaints Justified? You asked whether GAO thought it would be a good idea for the Congress to provide the Department of Labor with legislative authority to access the Social Security Administration's (SSA) wage data, which Labor could then cross-match with Federal Employee Compensation Act (FECA) benefits. Our work has shown that such cross-matching or data sharing can be a valuable management and oversight practice. OWCP already has the right to access SSA data. However, such access is subject to SSA's approval-the Code of Federal Regulations (20 C.F.R. 10.527) provides that OWCP may verify the earnings reported by the employee through a variety of means, including but not limited to computer matches with the Office of Personnel Management and inquiries to SSA. If the Congress believes that OWCP should have direct access to SSA's database- without being subject to approval by SSA-the Congress can provide for such access in legislation. Prior GAO work has demonstrated the importance of and potential savings from checking applicants' and beneficiaries' initial and continuing eligibility for federal benefits by verifying the economic information they provide with independent, third-party sources. For example, in our report entitled Benefit and Loan Programs: Improved Data Sharing Could Enhance Program Integrity (GAO/HEHS-00- 119, Sept. 13, 2000) we estimated that direct on-line connections between SSA's computers and databases maintained by state agencies containing information on wages, welfare benefits, and workers' compensation benefits could have prevented or more quickly detected $131 million in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) overpayments in one 12-month period. The report included a matter for consideration by the Congress that it consider legislative amendments to improve the ability of federally funded benefit and loan programs to obtain and share the information they need to make accurate eligibility determinations while protecting GAO-02-964R OWCP Access to SSA Wage Data

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