Page 1 GAO-25-108067 Treasury Priority Recommendations
N.W.
Comptroller General
of the United States
August 12, 2025
The Honorable Scott Bessent
Secretary of the Treasury
The Honorable Michael Faulkender
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220
Priority Open Recommendations: Department of the Treasury
Dear Secretary Bessent and Deputy Secretary Faulkender:
Congratulations on your appointments. The purpose of this letter is to call your personal
attention to four areas based on GAO’s past work and 32 open priority recommendations, which
are enclosed.
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Additionally, there are 96 other GAO open recommendations that we will
continue to work with your staff to address.
We are highlighting the following areas that warrant your timely and focused attention.
Specifically:
Reducing fraud and improper payments. To safeguard federal funds, it is critical to reduce
fraud and improper payments—payments that should not have been made or were made in an
incorrect amount. The federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually
to fraud alone, according to our April 2024 government-wide estimates based on data from
fiscal years 2018 through 2022. Additionally, federal agencies have reported about $2.8 trillion
in estimated improper payments since 2003, including over $150 billion government-wide in
each of the last 7 years.
However, the federal government is unable to determine the full extent to which fraud occurs in
individual federal programs. Treasury needs to evaluate and identify methods to expand fraud
estimation for high-risk program areas working with the Office of Management and Budget and
the Inspectors General, as we recommended. Fraud estimates can provide a better
understanding of the scope of the problem, help prioritize resources, and demonstrate return on
investment from fraud prevention and detection efforts.
In addition, we recommended that Treasury develop processes, such as post-payment reviews
or recovery audits, to strengthen its oversight of more than $46 billion in COVID-19 Emergency
Rental Assistance funds. Implementing this priority recommendation could help Treasury more
consistently identify and recover overpayments—including those resulting from potential fraud—
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GAO considers a recommendation to be a priority if, when implemented, it may significantly improve government
operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making
progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue.
