About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-21-430PR 1 (2021-06-03)

handle is hein.gao/gaoluj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: m1O o U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE A Century of Non-Partisan Fact-Based Work 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States June 3, 2021 Andrew Saul Commissioner U.S. Social Security Administration 6401 Security Boulevard Windsor Park Building Baltimore, MD 21235 Priority Open Recommendations: Social Security Administration Dear Mr. Saul: The purpose of this letter is to provide you with an update on the overall status of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your personal attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2020, we reported that, on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made 4 years ago were implemented.2 SSA's recommendation implementation rate was 71 percent. As of May 2021, SSA had 59 open recommendations. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve SSA's operations. SSA implemented four priority recommendations since our April 2020 letter: SSA is updating its Debt Management System to prevent staff from administratively waiving Disability Insurance overpayments over $1,000 and to ensure staff retain sufficient evidence supporting waiver decisions to facilitate monitoring and oversight. These actions should help ensure waivers are processed correctly and overpayments are not waived in error. To address Disability Insurance (DI) overpayments that result from the concurrent receipt of Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) benefits, SSA conducted a cost-benefit analysis, as we recommended, and concluded that the benefits of establishing a data exchange with DOL for FECA program data outweigh the costs. As discussed below, the data exchange is in the process of being fully implemented. Once this data exchange is established, SSA will use FECA benefit data to improve efficiencies in its ability to offset or reduce DI benefits when an individual is concurrently receiving FECA benefits. SSA established an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework, including a council to provide governance for the agency's ERM function. The council, which includes the agency's Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, facilitates 1 Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or fragmentation, overlap, or duplication issue. 2 GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2020, GAO-21-4SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 16, 2020). GAO-21-430PR Priority Recommendations: SSA Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most