GAO says OMB still has 20 priority recommendations open
The Government Accountability Office says the Office of Management and Budget still has 20 priority recommendations open, including unresolved work on federal fraud, improper payments and the government’s incomplete program inventory.
GAO dated its accountability letter August 4, 2026, and publicly released it August 11. The update counted 176 open GAO recommendations to OMB as of June 2026. The recommendations are not new as a group: the total reflects actions taken and changes in status since GAO’s August 2024 review.
What changed since 2024
In August 2024, GAO identified 37 priority recommendations for OMB. Since then, OMB implemented 11. GAO added seven new priority recommendations, removed the priority designation from five and closed eight as no longer valid. That left 20 priority recommendations open.
GAO uses the priority designation for recommendations that could save significant money, improve major policy decisions, address fraud or abuse, or reduce high-risk duplication and mismanagement. The remaining recommendations concern OMB’s governmentwide responsibilities, rather than a single federal program.
Fraud data remains incomplete
GAO estimates that federal fraud costs between $233 billion and $521 billion annually. The estimate is based on fiscal-year data from 2018 through 2022; it is not a measurement of verified fraud losses in fiscal 2025.
A separate GAO review, revised August 7, examined 20 large federally funded programs administered by states and other governments. The selected programs included Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and disaster assistance. Together, they accounted for about $1.1 trillion in federal obligations in fiscal 2025 and nearly 90% of obligations among the qualifying programs GAO selected.
Only five of the 20 programs had documented evidence consistent with identifying fraud risks and assessing their likelihood. The other 15 did not have that documentation. The finding does not establish that the 15 programs experienced fraud; it shows that GAO could not find the specified documentation of a sufficiently performed risk assessment.
GAO has pointed to stronger data analytics, clearer reporting and tools such as the federal Do Not Pay system as ways agencies can improve prevention and detection. Better risk information could also help agencies decide where enforcement and prevention resources are most needed, especially in programs involving federal agencies, states, contractors and other subrecipients.
Improper payments are not the same as fraud
GAO separately reported that federal agencies estimated $186 billion in improper payments during fiscal 2025 and about $3 trillion cumulatively since fiscal 2003.
Improper payments are payments that should not have been made or were made in the wrong amount. They can result from administrative mistakes, missing documentation or eligibility problems. The estimates do not mean every dollar was fraudulent or permanently lost.
GAO found that OMB’s guidance does not clearly direct agencies that fail to meet payment-integrity requirements to submit required annual reports. Five of seven agencies reviewed lacked sufficient documented procedures to ensure timely reporting for programs with repeated compliance problems.
GAO recommended that OMB clarify the reporting guidance. OMB did not comment on the draft report, according to GAO, which said it would follow up on actions taken.
The program inventory still has gaps
Federal law requires OMB to maintain and update an inventory of federal programs, including information about funding and performance. OMB’s January 2025 update covered more than 2,600 programs and more than $7 trillion in federal spending, but GAO said the update had not fully addressed 13 of 20 statutory requirements.
GAO said the inventory did not include all program types, including foreign assistance and defense programs, and did not provide all required spending and performance information for the programs listed. An incomplete inventory makes it harder for Congress, agency leaders and the public to identify overlap, duplication and fragmentation across government.
What Congress and OMB can do next
GAO’s recommendations are not self-executing. The next signs of progress will be OMB responses, updated guidance, changes in agency reporting, improvements to fraud analytics and further work on the federal program inventory.
Congress could use hearings, reporting requirements or legislation to press agencies for better information. The practical question is whether OMB can establish governmentwide systems that allow agencies and lawmakers to compare risks, track corrective actions and determine whether oversight changes are working.
For most residents, the immediate issue is not a new tax or benefit change. It is whether federal agencies can show where public money goes, identify payment errors and fraud risks, and explain what happens after problems are found. Those systems affect the reliability of large benefit, grant and assistance programs even when a payment error is not fraudulent.
Sources
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