The federal government wastes more than $87 billion by not implementing thousands of recommendations from the Office of the Inspector General, according to a new report.
President Barack Obama’s administration has not implemented 15,222 IG recommendations, which means the government is virtually wasting billions of dollars every year, according to a report by the U.S. Senate.
“Our investigation highlights the numerous obstacles that many inspectors general have faced in trying to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said in a statement. “I will continue to hold federal agencies accountable to implement common-sense recommendations to save taxpayer dollars, and will fight to pass our legislation that is critical to strengthening inspectors general.”
The Department of Defense could potentially save $33,119,506,000 if it implemented the IG’s recommendations, many of which require the Pentagon review invoices and correct unnecessary or wrongful costs in government contracts. Some of the recommendations the Pentagon has not implemented come from reports in 2006.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the worst at implementing recommendations, with total of 2,106. The agency with the next highest number of outstanding cost-saving recommendations is the Agency for International Development, which has not implemented 1,142.
“There is no excuse for this kind of waste,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, said in a statement. “At some point, agencies and the Obama Administration need to be held accountable for refusing to take corrective action to reduce waste that has been identified by the independent Inspectors General.”
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