Watchdog recommends nearly 100 ways for agencies to save tens of billions

"Officials estimated that implementing their new and past open recommendations could save more than $100 billion. Some of the new 97 recommendations for lawmakers and agencies include: Officials should consolidate mission-support services (e.g. payroll and travel) among agencies, which GAO reported could save tens of millions of dollars over three years. Specifically, the watchdog recommended that the Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration improve data collection with respect to the effectiveness of shared services."

"The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs should identify more opportunities to share healthcare resources, which could reduce fragmentation and also save tens of millions of dollars annually. FBI should lead the creation of a government-wide anti-scam strategy to spur collaboration, as 13 different agencies work to prevent scams."

"Investigators reported that, as of March, agencies had fully or partially addressed 1,662 (77%) of recommendations that GAO has made in these annual reports for the last 16 years, yielding about $774.3 billion in financial benefits. Officials acknowledged, however, that this is a "rough estimate based on a variety of sources that considered different time periods and used different data sources, assumptions and methodologies.""

The Government Accountability Office released an annual report identifying duplicative federal programs and opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency across agencies. Officials estimated that implementing new and past open recommendations could save more than $100 billion. New recommendations include consolidating mission-support services such as payroll and travel among agencies, with improved data collection on the effectiveness of shared services. The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs were urged to identify more opportunities to share healthcare resources to reduce fragmentation and save tens of millions of dollars annually. The FBI was recommended to lead a government-wide anti-scam strategy to encourage collaboration among 13 agencies. Agencies had addressed 1,662 recommendations, producing about $774.3 billion in financial benefits, though the estimate depends on varying sources and methods. The report also flagged unimplemented recommendations, including proposed cuts to GAO funding and disputes over findings related to withheld spending.

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