The U.S. government messed up $136.7 billion of payments last fiscal year

The U.S. Government $136.7 billion in improper payments last year.

(Image credit: ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images)

published 14 July 2016

The federal government's mistakes have cost America big time — literally. The latest report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that, in the fiscal year 2015, $136.7 billion was lost in "improper payments," which the report defines as "payments that should not have been made or were made in incorrect amounts."

As if that multi-billion-dollar figure weren't alarming enough, GAO reported that the feds' problem with improper payments has skyrocketed in recent years. To wit: The monetary total in 2015 was a whopping $30 billion more than the total in the fiscal year 2013.

In fairness, the federal government isn't wrong quite as often as that massive total might suggest. Data indicates that the Obama administration has a payment accuracy rate of 95.6 percent, which, The Washington Post noted, is "up more than a percentage point from when President Obama took office" in 2009.