It took the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to step in and review the Farm Service Agency’s management of the Covid Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and find the fraud. More than half of the producers GAO reviewed were not paid in full for the payments that were due.
The CARES Act – Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, required GAO to monitor this big and necessary feeding program.
It’s good that they did, but once again, USDA’s IG has failed its supervision of the Farm Service Agency. When I was at USDA, she missed the boat on a lot of things, including all things related to diversity and sexism, the credibility of farm production data, and a failed IT program that cost more than it costs to build an aircraft carrier (yes, GAO found this one, too). GAO’s finding of likely fraud is not making either USDA, FSA, or the USDA IG look any better.