GAO: 15 of 20 Major Benefit Programs Lacked Fraud-Risk Documentation
A revised Government Accountability Office report says only five of 20 major federally funded, state-administered programs supplied documentation consistent with leading practices for identifying, assessing and prioritizing fraud risks. The other 15 programs did not provide comparable documented evidence.
GAO reissued the report on August 7, 2026, with additional context about recently introduced program-integrity legislation. The 20 programs accounted for about $1.1 trillion in federal obligations during fiscal year 2025, nearly 90% of comparable obligations among programs exceeding $100 million.
The finding concerns safeguards and documentation. It does not mean that the $1.1 trillion in obligations, or the broader $1.2 trillion in federal assistance, was stolen or improperly paid.
Programs reach households through states and other intermediaries
The federal programs reviewed by GAO include Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, disaster assistance, education, transportation, housing and community development. Benefits and grants may be distributed through state agencies, local governments, tribes, territories, schools, colleges, contractors, subrecipients and other nonfederal organizations.
GAO estimated that the federal government provided $1.2 trillion in assistance to state and local governments in fiscal year 2025. The $1.1 trillion figure for the 20 selected programs refers to federal obligations, which are commitments to spend money that may be paid during the same fiscal year or a later year.
That decentralized structure can help deliver services but also creates additional points where eligibility decisions, payments, contracting and oversight can break down.
What the five-versus-15 finding means
A fraud-risk assessment is a management tool. It helps an agency identify where fraud could occur, evaluate the likelihood and potential impact, and prioritize prevention, detection and response efforts.
Five of the 20 programs supplied documentation consistent with those leading practices. The remaining 15 did not provide comparable documented evidence. GAO said that group included programs with no assessment as well as programs for which agencies supplied limited or insufficient documentation.
The absence of a documented assessment does not establish that fraud occurred in a program. It does show that GAO could not find comparable evidence that most of the reviewed programs were systematically identifying and ranking their program-specific fraud risks.
Audit findings point to broader control weaknesses
GAO also identified severe and persistent single-audit findings in 18 of the 20 programs, using complete data from 2020 through 2024. Single audits examine how federal funds are managed by states, local governments and other recipients and whether required controls are working.
GAO describes severe and persistent findings as indicators that programs may lack safeguards to prevent, detect or respond to fraud. They are not equivalent to confirmed fraud. Examples cited in the report include inadequate verification of medical services, unauthorized access to Medicaid payment systems and weaknesses involving road and bridge materials.
Across the 18 programs with such findings, about 4% of nearly 90,000 single audits had severe and persistent findings. The rate varied widely by program, from about 0.3% to nearly 25%.
The report also identifies 22 open GAO recommendations related to fraud-risk management. Follow-up will show whether agencies document program-specific risks, improve data verification and analytics, and address weaknesses identified through audits.
Improper payments are a separate measure
In a separate analysis, GAO reported that 15 federal agencies estimated about $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs in fiscal year 2025. That figure is not a fraud total. Improper payments can include payments made to the wrong recipient, in the wrong amount, or without enough documentation, and may result from administrative error as well as fraud.
GAO says the $186 billion estimate does not represent the full extent of government-wide improper payments. For example, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF, did not report an estimate even though about $16.5 billion was spent through the program in fiscal year 2025. The Department of Health and Human Services has said it lacks authority to obtain the information needed to estimate and report TANF improper payments.
What happens next
Congressional oversight and agency action will determine whether the documented gaps lead to stronger controls. H.R. 7155, the Stop Fraud in Federal Programs Act of 2026, was introduced in the House on January 20, 2026, and referred to the Judiciary Committee and the Education and Workforce Committee. It remains a proposal, not an enacted law.
For recipients, the report does not immediately change eligibility, benefit amounts or application procedures. For taxpayers and policymakers, the key questions are whether agencies close the 22 open recommendations, use information across programs and publicly document how they are reducing fraud risk without blocking eligible people from benefits and services.
Sources
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