Navigating the Do-Not-Pay List(s)

White House officials on Friday announced they will begin rolling out governmentwide a mashup device currently used to detect stimulus-spending fraud, but they also noted a technological weakness preventing agencies from quickly spotting potential improper payments.

As Nextgov first reported last fall, the Recovery Board, an independent agency charged with overseeing stimulus dollars, acquired an analytical program that identifies not-so obvious relationships between contractors and possible conflicts of interest. The application works by combining, or mashing up, data from multiple data sources on maps and other graphic illustrations.

On Friday, Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will now start using the tool.

At the same time, President Obama issued a memo that directs agencies to consult many, many databases, including the Social Security Administration's file of deceased people and the General Services Administration's list of barred contractors, before releasing taxpayer dollars. It's possible that this lack of centralization could slow the administration's efforts to reduce the $100 billion in improper payments disbursed each year.

Today, there is no single system for checking whether a person is eligible to receive federal benefits, contracts and loans. The Recovery Board's device mainly targets repeat instances of fund mismanagement.

The administration in April said it intends to link the various contractor-related resources with a new system called the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS). Friday's memo directs OMB to draft a plan within four months for connecting the remainder of eligibility databases that are not yet accessible through the system.