Priority Open Recommendations: Department of the Treasury

Summary

What GAO Found In August 2025, GAO identified 32 priority recommendations for the Department of the Treasury. Since then, Treasury has implemented four of those recommendations, bringing the total to 28, as of June 2026. GAO is highlighting the following three areas that warrant timely and focused attention: Reducing fraud and improper payments, Ensuring cybersecurity and information privacy, and Improving federal financial management. Addressing GAO's recommendations in these areas would enhance Treasury's efforts to effectively recover overpayments of COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance funds made by grantees; improve the ability of Treasury and the financial services sector to address cyber-related risks; and help ensure that Congress and the administration have ready access to complete and reliable financial information. Taking action to implement all of GAO's open priority recommendations could lead to significant improvements in Treasury's operations. Why GAO Did This Study Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision-making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or make progress toward addressing a high risk or duplication issue, among other benefits. Since 2015, GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations. For more information, contact Cardell Johnson at JohnsonCD1@gao.gov.