The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has added a new ongoing CFPB project to its work plan updated as of March 13, 2015.  The OIG is auditing the CFPB’s compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, as amended by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 and the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012.

The law requires an agency to perform an annual review of its programs and activities and identify those programs and activities that are susceptible to significant improper payments. (An improper payment is generally any payment that should not have been made or that was made in an incorrect amount under statutory, contractual, administrative, or other legally applicable requirements.)  An agency must estimate the amount of improper payments and implement a program to reduce them.  It must also file reports with the President and Congress and the Office of Management and Budget that include the estimates, steps taken by the agency to reduce improper payments, the amount of improper payments the agency expects to recover, and how it plans to go about recovering such amount.

The OIG audit has a second quarter 2015 estimated completion date.