President Obama has signed into law the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act. It is a move in the right direction on government waste, but also reveals some inherent problems.

The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act is one of the few bills this year that Republicans and Democrats have both gotten behind. The Act is designed to eliminate the estimated $110 billion in erroneous and excess payments made by the government each year. Eliminate these for four years and we’ll have paid for TARP!

The bill works by forcing the head of each government agency to perform an audit each year. The audits will focus on the contracts awarded, invoicing for them and payments made. The agency will then have to deliver the report to Congress for review. Any excessive payments, obviously, will be pursued.

The Act certain sounds like a good move, but it also comes with some basic provisions that reflect the way politicians think about these things and how they can get us in trouble. Specifically, the Act doesn’t so much as say that the agency must do an audit each year. Instead, it states that each agency, big or small, must spend at least one million dollars a year on an audit. 

A million dollars? I take it the “auditing lobby” is very happy today. I fully realize that this is small potatoes when we are talking about the potential elimination of in excess of $100 billion in erroneous payments. That being said, there has to be some humor found in the fact the government is mandating that each of its agencies must perform a MILLION DOLLAR audit to…avoid wasting taxpayer money! Perhaps I am just sensitive to the subject. 

The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act is, in truth, a very good step by the government to reign in the blight of government waste. Now if the politicians could figure out a way to cut the basic spending that has driven us so far into debt!