The Government Accountability Office has found that the federal government recorded approximately $144 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2016.GAO said in a report published Wednesday the figure was linked to 112 federal programs across 22 agencies and those programs include Medicare, Medicaid and earned income tax credit.
Medicare-related programs such as Part D and Medicare Advantage accounted for approximately $59.7 billion in improper payments, followed by Medicaid at $36.3 billion.
The congressional watchdog also found that the government reported approximately $4.3 billion in fiscal 2015 spending on more than 640,000 vehicles that are either owned or leased by agencies.
GAO called on the federal government to cut improper payments, manage its fleet of vehicles, reduce unneeded facilities, make changes to the acquisition process for information technology platforms and address cybersecurity issues related to federal IT infrastructure.
