GAO Report: OAA Funds at Risk Due to Lack of Fraud Oversight

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report released September 17 assessed Older Americans Act (OAA) program administration by the Administration on Community Living (ACL) and the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA).

Because of growing demographic pressures causing increased demand for OAA funded programs and services (which totaled more than $2.3 billion in 2023), the GAO looked at fraud prevention and administrative risk monitoring programs in both ACL and ETA. Their analysis found that neither agency has dedicated staff tasked with monitoring for fraud, nor strategies to handle fraudulent acts should they be identified.

The report makes 14 recommendations, affecting either the ACL or the ETA, to help identify fraud risks, determine likelihood of outcomes from those risks, assess fraud risk tolerance, examine existing fraud controls, and compile each programs' fraud risk profile. GAO concluded that without priority given to regular fraud risk assessment, inclusive of the domains in the GAO's Fraud Risk Framework, neither ACL nor ETA are positioned to prevent, detect, or respond to fraud in their OAA programs.

The report and quick facts are available here.