Pennsylvania HB 979: An Act amending Title 71 (State Government) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, providing for the assessment of improper payments by Commonwealth agencies and for public information on payments and programs of Commonwealth agencies.

Bill Text

PRINTER'S NO. 1062
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 979
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY GAYDOS, KRUPA, M. MACKENZIE AND GROVE,
MARCH 19, 2025
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, MARCH 19, 2025
AN ACT
Amending Title 71 (State Government) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, providing for the assessment of
improper payments by Commonwealth agencies and for public
information on payments and programs of Commonwealth
agencies.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Title 71 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes is amended by adding a part to read:
PART I
COMMONWEALTH AGENCIES
Chapter
1. Preliminary Provisions (Reserved)
3. Assessment of Improper Payments
CHAPTER 1
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
(Reserved)
CHAPTER 3
ASSESSMENT OF IMPROPER PAYMENTS
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Sec.
301. Definitions.
302. Assessment of improper payments.
303. Public information on payments and programs of
Commonwealth agencies.
§ 301. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this chapter
shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Commonwealth agency." A board, commission or department of
the executive branch under the policy supervision and
jurisdiction of the Governor. The term does not include any of
the following:
(1) The Treasury Department.
(2) The Department of the Auditor General.
(3) The Office of Attorney General.
"Improper payment." A payment that should not have been made
by a Commonwealth agency or a contractor with a Commonwealth
agency under statutory, contractual, administrative or other
legal applicable requirements, including any of the following:
(1) An overpayment.
(2) An underpayment.
(3) A payment to an ineligible recipient.
(4) A payment for an ineligible service.
(5) A payment for a duplicative or redundant service.
(6) A payment for services not received.
(7) A payment for goods and services that does not
utilize or was not given available discounts.
"Payment." A payment, including a commitment for a future
payment, that is made by a Commonwealth agency or a contractor
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with a Commonwealth agency and utilizes Federal or State funds.
§ 302. Assessment of improper payments.
(a) Assessment.--No less than once every two years, a
Commonwealth agency shall conduct an assessment of improper
payments on any program which is not required under Federal law.
A Commonwealth agency shall conduct an initial assessment of
improper payments no later than 120 days after the effective
date of this subsection.
(b) Contents.--As part of the assessment under subsection
(a), a Commonwealth agency shall:
(1) Determine whether the programs operated by the
Commonwealth agency have a low, moderate or high risk of
resulting in improper payments based on each program's total
amount of improper payments in dollars and total improper
payments as a percentage of each program's total
expenditures.
(2) Explain the reasons why the programs operated by the
Commonwealth have been assessed as having a low, moderate or
high risk of resulting in improper payments.
(3) Discover and report the root causes of improper
payments within high-risk programs.
(4) Utilize statistical sampling and extrapolation to
calculate an improper payment error rate for high-risk
programs.
(5) Adopt a corrective action plan to reduce improper
payment error rates to no more than 3% for high-risk programs
for the next occurring biennial assessment.
(c) Copies.--A Commonwealth agency shall provide an
electronic copy of the assessment under subsection (a) to all of
the following:
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(1) The Secretary of the Budget.
(2) The Office of the Inspector General .
(3) The Department of the Auditor General.
(4) The Independent Fiscal Office.
(5) Members of the General Assembly.
§ 303. Public information on payments and programs of
Commonwealth agencies.
The Office of the Budget shall maintain a publicly accessible
Internet website and update the website to inform the public of,
at a minimum, all of the following information:
(1) Each Commonwealth agency's biennial improper payment
assessments.
(2) Each Commonwealth agency's total improper payments
in dollar value and total improper payment error rate.
(3) Each Commonwealth agency's high-risk program, the
dollar value of improper payments for each high-risk program
and the improper payment error rate percentage for each high-
risk program.
(4) Each Commonwealth agency's high-risk program
corrective action plan and a summary status of completing the
corrective action plan.
(5) The recovery of improper payments for each program
in total dollars and by percentage.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 120 days.
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