A government audit of the Agriculture department found that millions of dollars in farm subsidies are paid each year to farmers who have been dead for a year or longer, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Between 2008 and 2012, The Natural Resources Conservation Service, which oversees conservation assistance and farmland protection programs, sent $10.6 million to more than 1,000 people who died more than a year prior. The Risk Management Agency, which manages crop insurance, paid $22 million to more than 3,400 people who had died at least two years prior, according to the Times.
According to the audit, the Agriculture Department lacked adequate data to make sure the payments were going to living farmers. “The auditors suggested that the Agriculture Department use the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File to identify payments made to dead individuals,” the Times reported.
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