U.S. government agencies could save American taxpayers billions of dollars by reducing or eliminating fragmentation, overlap and duplication identified in a federal audit made public this month. The question is whether the various publicly funded entities will bother to take action to mitigate the waste. For nearly a decade the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), has documented more than 1,100 cases of fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative federal programs in areas ranging from healthcare to defense, the production of U.S. currency and disaster response. Only around half of the GAO’s recommendations to curb waste have been fully implemented in the past nine years, resulting in “hundreds of billions of dollars in financial benefits,” according to U.S. Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro. Imagine the savings if more agencies did their job correctly.
Fragmentation refers to circumstances in which more than one federal
agency is involved in the same broad area of national need and service
delivery can be improved. Overlap occurs when multiple agencies or
programs have similar goals, engage in similar activities or strategies
to achieve them, or target similar beneficiaries. Duplication exists
when two or more agencies or programs are engaged in the same activities
or provide the same services to the same beneficiaries. The list of
agencies that fragment, overlap or duplicate goes on and on with
practically every key federal agency appearing as an offender over the
years. Among them are the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Labor
(DOL), Homeland Security (DHS), State, Agriculture (USDA) and Commerce
as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...........To Read More....
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