Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Record date: 2025-03-28
( printed page 14011) Executive Order 14249 of March 25, 2025 Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1 . Purpose. Promoting financial integrity and operational efficiency are critical responsibilities of the Federal Government. The Federal Government processes trillions of dollars annually in disbursements to individuals, businesses, and organizations, and in receipts from taxes, fees, and other payments to finance daily and long-term
What this record contains
- Federal Register document
- 2025-05524
- Publication date
- 2025-03-28
- Citation
- 90 FR 14011
- Issuing office
- Executive Office of the President
Official record excerpt
( printed page 14011) Executive Order 14249 of March 25, 2025 Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1 . Purpose. Promoting financial integrity and operational efficiency are critical responsibilities of the Federal Government. The Federal Government processes trillions of dollars annually in disbursements to individuals, businesses, and organizations, and in receipts from taxes, fees, and other payments to finance daily and long-term Government operations. These transactions flow into and out of the United States General Fund (General Fund), which might be thought of as America's bank account. In Fiscal Year 2024, $33.9 trillion flowed into the General Fund and $33.6 trillion flowed out of the account, including $5.87 trillion (less net interest) in benefits, grants, loans, vendor payments, and other disbursements. The Department of the Treasury is the largest financial payment manager of the Federal Government and is responsible for safeguarding the General Fund, but lacks sufficient controls to track transactions flowing through the General Fund to determine if they were proper. To enforce sufficient controls and ensure accountability to American taxpayers, the Department of the Treasury requires financial information from executive departments and agencies (agencies) beyond what they currently provide. Financial fraud threatens the integrity of Federal programs and undermines trust in Government. Agencies' past underinvestment in technology and longstanding challenges with access to accurate data has prevented them from more fully safeguarding taxpayer dollars against fraud and improper payments. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the Federal Government loses between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud. In addition to being an efficient steward of taxpayer funds, the Federal Government, on behalf of the American public, must seek to ensure that financial information is accurate and that there is transparency with respect to how taxpayer dollars are being used. Today, Federal funds are disbursed both by the Department of the Treasury and various Federal Government entities that are authorized to issue their own disbursements known as Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices (NTDOs). In Fiscal Year 2024, NTDOs were estimated to be responsible for 181 million payments totaling over $1.5 trillion (approximately 22 percent of all Federal Government dollars disbursed). This fragmentation of disbursing authority, together with the proliferation of non-standard financial management systems across the Federal Government, leads to expensive, disjointed, and duplicative financial reporting, lack of financial traceability, complicated financial management, opacity, increased operational risks, and decreased ability of the Department of the Treasury to provide centralized oversight. This order promotes financial integrity by enabling the Department of the Treasury to more easily conduct improper payment and fraud prevention screening prior to disbursing funds on behalf of agencies. This order increases transparency and accountability by requiring agencies to provide the Department of the Treasury with the information needed to track transactions through the General Fund in greater detail. This order also promotes operational efficiency by returning disbursing functions to the Department of ( printed page 14012) the Treasury when possible and consolidating and standardizing core Federal financial systems. Sec. 2 . Policy. It is the policy of the United States to defend against financial fraud and improper payments, increase transparency and accountability around the Federal Government's operations and financial condition, increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the security of Federal payments. Sec. 3 . Treasury Verification of Agency Payments Information. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Director), shall update guidance and enhance systems to ensure that all payments made by the Department of the Treasury on behalf of agencies pursuant to the Secretary of the Treasury's disbursing authority, including 31 U.S.C. 3321 , are subject to pre-certification verification processes established by the Secretary of the Treasury and conducted by agencies and the Department of the Treasury for the purposes of defending against financial fraud and improper payments, to the greatest extent permitted by law. Such guidance shall set forth guidelines for compliance with the Do Not Pay Working System as described in 31 U.S.C. 3351 et seq., and such other payment, account, and payee validation programs and services
The excerpt is reproduced from the public federal record and may omit later sections, tables, signatures or attachments. Open the official source for the complete text.
Questions for accountability
- What legal authority does this economy action cite?
- Which agencies or officials were directed to act?
- What measurable implementation, cost, deadline or later court action followed?
How to use this page
This is a source-record entry, not a truth-rating by itself. It preserves the action, date and original government publication so it can be connected to later claims, implementation records, court decisions, costs and measurable outcomes. Editorial claim reviews on this site use separate finding labels and explain the evidence for those findings.