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Treasury says it found one‑third of payments lacked Treasury Account Symbols; members press for anti‑fraud steps
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Summary
Treasury officials told the subcommittee they required Treasury Account Symbols on all payments after finding many lacked TAS identifiers. Members cited GAO estimates of improper payments and asked about implementation of an executive order to prevent fraud.
Representative Henson told the subcommittee that the Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, waste and improper payments and asked Treasury to explain actions required by a recent executive order.
Secretary Scott Bissett said Treasury had found a major gap in payment accountability: "We discovered that more than one third of those payments did not have a TAS number. So as the appropriations committee, you should be shocked by that because how can a payment be tracked back to an appropriation?" He said the department has moved to require a Treasury Account Symbol on every payment that treasury sends as paymaster for 450 organizations it oversees.
Bissett also described steps to move federal benefits to electronic disbursement to reduce theft and costs and said Treasury had reclaimed "tens of millions of dollars" in improperly made payments. Committee members requested details on the number and size of clawbacks, timelines for implementing precertification and pre‑award procedures, and how the TAS requirement is being enforced across agencies.
The exchange focused on operational fixes, employee morale and auditability: Bissett said middle managers welcomed the change and that mandating TAS numbers increased accountability for appropriated funds. Members asked Treasury to provide documentation of the TAS verification process and preliminary results of the executive order's implementation.
