2014 Duplication and Cost Savings Report

As the fiscal pressures facing the government continue to mount, so too does the need for executive branch agencies and Congress to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs and activities. Today, we released our 4th annual report on federal programs, agencies, offices and initiatives that have duplicative goals or activities.

Our first 3 reports—issued in March 2011, February 2012, and March 2013—identified 162 areas in which government agencies or Congress can take steps to reduce or better manage fragmentation, overlap, and duplication; reduce costs; or enhance revenue. Those 3 reports identified approximately 380 specific actions to address the issues in those areas.

Excerpted from GAO-14-343SP

This year’s report identified 11 new areas in which government could reduce or better manage fragmentation, overlap, and duplication, including:

• fragmentation in contracting for defense health care professionals;
• overlap in disability and unemployment benefits; and
• duplication in the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA mission.

Additionally, we identified 15 areas where government could reduce cost or enhance revenues. These included

• rescinding unused funds for a Department of Energy loan program,
• improving data to identify potential efficiencies in multiple programs, and
• enhancing online taxpayer services.

The new report identified specific actions that federal agencies or Congress could take to address these areas. Check out our infographic highlighting some of this year’s findings:

Click for full image

After each annual report is released, we continue to monitor the progress agencies and Congress have made in addressing the areas we identified. We document that progress for you in our Action Tracker. So far, according to the tracker, 123 actions have been completely addressed, including actions related to farm program payments, combat uniforms, and passenger aviation security fees.

For more information, check out our Duplication and Cost Savings web resource, which includes this year’s report and the Comptroller General’s testimony to Congress. Also, you can listen to our podcast with director Nikki Clowers on the duplication and cost savings work.

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