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Food Assistance: Efforts to Control Fraud and Abuse in the Child and Adult Care Food Program Should be Strengthened

RCED-00-12 Published: Nov 24, 1999. Publicly Released: Nov 24, 1999.
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Highlights

GAO reviewed the Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) efforts to control the fraud and abuses occurring in its state administered Child and Adult Care Food Program, focusing on: (1) the extent to which the states have implemented required and recommended controls to prevent and detect fraud and abuse; and (2) FNS' effectiveness in directing the states' efforts to implement these controls.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture To reduce the Child and Adult Care Food Program's vulnerability to fraud and abuse, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, FNS, to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for strengthening state controls for detecting and preventing fraud and abuse. The plan should identify actions that the agency needs to take and include measurable goals and objectives for each action. These actions should include, but not be limited to: (1) expediting the issuance of regulations strengthening the minimum requirements for the states' controls over fraud and abuse; (2) developing a systematic means of monitoring the states' compliance with minimum requirements; (3) examining ways to address difficulties the states face in implementing strong program controls (such as unclear federal guidance and inadequate training); and (4) exploring alternative types of sanctions that could be invoked in cases of noncompliance. Furthermore, as part of the plan, FNS should examine measures for evaluating the success or failure of the combined actions it carries out in terms of their ultimate impact on the level of fraud and abuse in the program.
Closed – Implemented
In June 2000, the Congress enacted a variety of statutory requirements intended to reduce the potential for fraud and abuse in one of the nation's largest food assistance programs, the $1.5 billion Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Many of these requirements were drawn from GAO's November 1999 report and the USDA Inspector General's September 1999 report. For example, the report provided previously unavailable information about how states vary in using a number of techniques that have been proven effective in identifying fraud and abuse in the program. GAO also described the obstacles that states said they faced in adopting these additional controls. Moreover, GAO found that USDA had not been effective in overseeing states' efforts to address known problems in this program and was still experiencing delays in requiring states to use the proven anti-fraud controls. In response to these reports, the Congress statutorily required the implementation of many of these proven controls and took steps to strengthen USDA's oversight of states efforts.

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Topics

Child care programsstate relationsFood relief programsFraudInternal controlsProgram abusesState-administered programsFraud and abuseFood assistanceNutrition