Somebody may be taking for more than they should… 👀💸

During the pandemic, the USDA provided producers with $31 billion for various commodities through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). But after reviews, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that over half of the producers didn’t provide full support for their payments – which were potentially improper.

• The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) included GAO’s monitoring of responses, payments, and implementations. 

But the problem is that, contrary to traditional farm bill programs, the CFAP was designed as a self-certification program for producers with hardships associated with COVID-19. So, they weren’t required to provide evidence for their claims when issuing payments.

• It’s estimated that about 4.4% of CFAP payments were improper and, thus, that the program is susceptible to significant inconsistencies. 
• The USDA will be required to estimate and report improper payments for any future payments in the program.

Although the existence of fraud risk factors doesn’t imply that fraud did happen, these factors are often present when it does. So, in order to avoid that, GAO suggested that the FSA administrator conduct additional spot checks of CFAP payments and use a more risk-based approach for selecting producers for review.