Pursuit's Take
GAO found approximately $994 million in funding remained in expired grant accounts in the Payment Management System (PMS), operated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), at the end of fiscal year 2015.
GAO’s analysis of the September 30, 2015, PMS data indicated the following:
- The total undisbursed balance increased by approximately $200 million from what GAO reported for the end of fiscal year 2011. However, the number of expired grant accounts with undisbursed balances decreased to 8,832 in 2015 compared to 10,548 in 2011.
- More than half the accounts exceeded their expiration date by 1 to 3 years.
- A relatively small number of expired grant accounts represented more than half of the total undisbursed balance—151 grants represented $514.7 million in undisbursed balances.
- HHS grant accounts in PMS comprised approximately $651 million (66 percent) of the identified undisbursed balances in expired grant accounts.
- The number of expired grant accounts with no undisbursed balance that PMS flagged for closeout dropped to 5,906 from the more than 28,000 accounts GAO reported for the end of fiscal year 2011. HHS accounts made up 66 percent of the 5,906 expired accounts flagged for closeout, which is inconsistent with HHS policy.