We continue to focus efforts on properly accounting for, managing, and collecting money that is owed the federal government, such as loans, fees, penalties and unpaid taxes, which is vital to responsible stewardship of taxpayer money. Every year the Federal government is owed hundreds of billions of dollars as a result of uncollected debts. In fiscal year 2010, over $100 billion of non-tax debt (e.g., loans, fees, penalties, fines) was delinquent. In fact, statistics demonstrate that 18 percent of all Federal non-tax debt will become delinquent. In addition to non-tax debt, nearly $360 billion is owed to the federal government because people and businesses have not paid their taxes. With so much money at stake, Federal agencies, lawmakers, and the public deserve to know how the government is performing when it comes to collecting its debts.

In an effort to make collecting outstanding Federal debt more transparent, we will be launching a Dashboard that will:

  • Show how much money is owed to the Federal government
  • Show how much of the money owed to the Federal government is delinquent
  • Measure agency performance for collecting its debt
  • Measure agency performance for referring its debt to the Department of Treasury’s for collection
  • Describe the root causes, or reasons, why agencies are unable to collect their debts.
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