The Government Accountability Office estimated in a new report that agencies within the Agriculture Department may have paid more than $30 million to thousands of deceased recipients between 2008 and 2012. The report found that at the Risk Management Agency, which deals with crop insurance, a review of payments showed $22 million may have gone to more than 3,400 individuals "two or more years after death". The report also looked at payments from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and found $10.6 million went to 1,103 "deceased individuals one year or more after their death".
The GAO report faulted the agency for not using a Social Security Administration master list to verify whether policyholders have died. The report praised another agency, the Farm Service Agency (which helps with disaster assistance and other programs) for aggressively checking payment records against death records. The report said the FSA has, by doing this, found it made $3.3 million in improper payments to thousands of dead people, and has so far recovered $1 million of that.
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