Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
This Executive Order aims to strengthen financial integrity, enhance transparency, and improve operational efficiency in the federal government's financial management systems. The order characterizes the United States General Fund as "America's bank account" and identifies significant weaknesses in current financial controls, noting that the Department of Treasury lacks sufficient mechanisms to track transactions and determine if they were proper. The order cites Government Accountability Office estimates that the federal government loses between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud, attributing these losses to underinvestment in technology and challenges with accessing accurate data. It further highlights the fragmentation of disbursing authority between Treasury and Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices (NTDOs) as contributing to disjointed reporting, lack of traceability, and decreased oversight capability.
The order establishes several specific mechanisms to address these issues. It directs the Treasury Secretary to update guidance and enhance systems to ensure all payments undergo pre-certification verification processes to detect fraud and improper payments. Agency heads must modify their system of records notices within 90 days to allow data sharing with Treasury for fraud prevention purposes. The order outlines nine specific pre-certification criteria that Certifying Officers must enforce before approving payments, including verification of fund availability, payee information, and account validity. It also mandates the consolidation of core financial systems, requiring CFO Act agencies to standardize their systems within 180 days and directing non-CFO Act agencies to consolidate financial management services under a Treasury-approved provider.
Implementation responsibilities are clearly defined throughout the order. The Treasury Secretary is directed to assess existing delegations of disbursing authority within 30 days and revoke them as appropriate, while agency heads with independent disbursing authority are instructed to delegate these functions to Treasury's Chief Disbursing Officer. All agency heads must submit compliance plans to the Office of Management and Budget Director within 90 days, detailing their strategies for transitioning disbursing authority, updating systems, and establishing payment verification procedures. The Treasury Secretary must report on implementation progress to the President through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy within 180 days. The order emphasizes that these changes must protect classified information and personally identifiable data throughout implementation, while acknowledging that execution is subject to available appropriations and existing legal authorities.