U.S. Department of State Fiscal Year 2019 Agency Financial Report

audits and are considered an activity outside of recapture audits. Because the OMA activity is secondary and consistent with a function that an external auditor would perform, for reporting purposes OMA’s activity is considered recapture as defined by IPIA. Payment Recapture Audit Reporting CGFS incorporates various manual and automated data analysis techniques and processes to identify, validate and collect improper payments, including use of data mining software, manual sampling of internal payment records, U.S. Treasury taxpayer identification number matching, and sampling of vendors. Monthly, as part of the Recapture Audit process, OMA conducts a query of domestic vendor payments. Domestic vendor payments represent the largest category of Department-made payments subject to IPIA recapture audit requirements, focusing on identifying potential improper and duplicate payments. Currently, these payments are reviewed on a monthly basis using IDEA – Data Analysis software to run matches of vendor invoice numbers and payment amounts against current payment data and payments dating back to 2007. The increased quality control processes by CGFS/F/C in both payments generation and internal post-payment review process have contributed to overall lower improper recapture audit amounts. In addition to the automated IDEA analysis, OMA performs a manual quarterly review of overseas and domestic payments. These manual recapture audits validate elements such as vendor, payment amount, and ensure proper documentation exists to support sampled payments. In 2019, OMA contract recapture audit efforts identified $255,711 contract overpayments. Of that amount, $190,928 was recovered and returned to the originating appropriations. In addition, OMA performs a quarterly manual recapture audit of employee claim payments subject to the Department’s overall travel program. This recapture audit focuses on known identified issue areas as well as providing overall audit coverage of employee travel payments. As shown in the “Payment Recaptures Reporting” table, in 2019 OMA identified $51,481 in travel program recapture audit overpayments, and collected $80,183 which was returned to the originating appropriation. The collected amount includes $59,869 of prior year overpayments identified. Contributions; Post-Assignment Travel; Temporary Duty Travel; Domestic Purchase Card Payments; National Endowment for Democracy; Economic Support Fund; Diplomatic and Support Programs; Overseas Programs; Diplomatic Policy and Support; Consular Information Technology and Security; Information Technology Central Fund; Worldwide Security Protection; Security- Afghanistan, Pakistan; Western Hemisphere Travel Surcharge; Diplomatic and Consular Terrorism Related Programs; Passport Generation and Related Programs; Diplomatic and Consular Other Operations Programs; Capital and Real Property Acquisitions Programs; Leaseholds and Functional Programs; International Security Programs; Population Refugees and Migration Programs; International Cooperative Administrative Support Services; Working Capital Fund Programs; Fulbright Program; Citizen Exchange Program; Educational Programs; Promote the Rule of Law; Physical Security Programs; Aviation, Anticrime, Interdiction and Related Programs; Embassy Operations Programs; Peacekeeping Operations; International Security and Nonproliferation Related Programs; Construction; and Project Construction – Major Rehabilitation. Recapture of Improper Payments Reporting A number of improper payment activities, both preventative and recovery, exist for domestic and overseas payments at the Department, Bureau, post, and program levels to support IPIA efforts and ensure the integrity and accuracy of Department payments. The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS) has a two-tiered improper payment monitoring and review program that consists of activities performed by the payment issuing office and secondly by the Office of Oversight and Management Analysis (OMA). As an integral part of our post-payment review process, improper payment reviews are performed initially by the payment issuing offices which include the Office of Claims (CGFS/F/C) and Office of Global Compensation (CGFS/GC). The subsequent review performed by OMA focuses on overpayments and utilizes data and risk analysis to drive the recapture work performed. While many agencies hire external recapture auditors to perform a secondary review, this function is performed more efficiently within the Department by OMA. Because the activity performed by CGFS/F/C and CGFS/GC is a post-payment (versus recapture payment) review process, those results are not considered recapture 138 | U nited S tates D epartment of S tate 2019 A gency F inancial R eport OTHER INFORMATION | PAYMENT INTEGRITY AND OTHER LAWS AND REGULATIONS