Excluded Parties List System: Suspended and Debarred Businesses and Individuals Improperly Receive Federal Funds

In July 2005, GAO reported that the data in EPLS were insufficient to enable agencies to determine with confidence that a prospective vendor was not currently excluded. In response, GSA agreed to modify EPLS's data requirements to include a mandatory provision that agencies enter a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number to facilitate the identification of excluded parties. Despite such modifications, recent allegations indicate that businesses or individuals that have been excluded for egregious offenses have been able to "resurface" under the same or a different business name or identity in order to continue to receive federal contracts and other funds. We described the results of our investigation confirming these allegations in our recently issued report. This testimony will summarize our overall findings and will also describe the key causes of the improper awards and other payments we detected.