Recovery.gov - Track the Money

SSA’s largest expenditure, $37 million, is primarily for salaries and benefits of employees handling inquiries from the public, processing returned mail, and reissuing undelivered checks. The $37 million also includes salary costs for employees developing policy and the systems necessary for processing this workload. The second largest cost, estimated at $28 million is for the printing and postage of the notice being sent in advance of the payment and the informational leaflet that will be available at SSA field offices and Wal-Mart stores. The cost for printing the Economic Recovery notices is $519,000. The estimated cost to mail these notices is $18,063,000. The total cost for printing the Economic Recovery informational leaflet is $55,000. The estimated cost for shipping these leaflets is $32,000. About $5 million will go to systems costs to conduct data matching runs with the Railroad Retirement Board and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The $5 million also includes purchasing computer storage space needed to process the estimated 70 million records created by the Economic Recovery Payment program and to retain these records for 7 years. The total cost for this additional storage is $2,143,000. Additionally, SSA has added a Recovery Act message to the National 800 Number and the field office general inquiry phone lines. The total cost for the National 800 Number phone message is $1,182,000. The total cost of the phone message for the field office general inquiry phone lines is $140,000.

As SSA builds on existing processes to implement the activities in this plan, we will also utilize established review programs to assess risks and to ensure that adequate controls have been effectively implemented. Three of the major monitoring programs are the Financial Management System (FMS) Review Program, the Management Control Review (MCR) Program, and the internal control testing required by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-123, Appendix A. The FMS Review Program identifies risks to SSA’s programmatic and financial systems and tests the controls in place to mitigate these risks. The MCR Program ensures that SSA’s front line offices comply with SSA’s operational, security and administrative policies. The OMB Circular A-123, Appendix A program ensures that the controls supporting SSA’s financial reporting processes are working properly. All three of these review programs will provide periodic recommendations and evaluations that determine if controls can be improved and the agency’s Senior Accountable Official will monitor these recommendations to ensure corrective action is taken.

These review programs support the accounting for the tracking of administrative expenses related to the one-time payment in many ways. An example is that SSA’s Cost Analysis System and Online Accounting and Reporting System are two of the systems that undergo a periodic FMS review. These systems will be instrumental in systematically tracking costs associated with the Economic Recovery Payments. Also, SSA’s OMB Circular A-123, Appendix A program annually tests and evaluates the controls in the development of financial information. In accordance with the guidance in Appendix C of OMB Circular A-123, SSA will determine if the Economic Recovery Payments are susceptible to significant improper payments, and if so, we will take appropriate corrective action.

Recovery Act funding will be used primarily for salary and benefits of federal employees, postage, printing, and systems development costs. Contracting requirements for printing of notices fall under the jurisdiction of the Government Printing Office and postage is all managed by the Federal Postal Service. Therefore, recipient level data is not applicable.

SSA is using the Recovery Act funding for salaries, benefits, printing, postage, and systems development costs. These funds will not be used for Federal infrastructure investments.