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The fund that pays benefits under the CSRS and FERS retirement systems made some $326 million in improper payments in fiscal 2022, the inspector general’s office at OPM has said, adding that “the most common causes of improper payments are related to annuitant deaths that are unreported or unknown to OPM.”
“These unreported deaths may allow payments to continue because of program vulnerabilities or intentional fraud on the part of bad actors. Sometimes, CSRS or FERS improper payments continue for years and cost tens of thousands of dollars before discovery,” it said.
Other forms of fraud against the program include forging of documents such as address verification letters, identity theft and other schemes, it added.