With tax season coming to an end, most Americans know how rigorous they have to be when tracking their finances. Every dollar must be accounted for, or the IRS could come calling.
But when it comes to spending taxpayers' money, the federal government isn’t so precise. Over the past 20 years, federal agencies and programs have made “payment errors” that add up to $2.4 trillion, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). That’s more than the annual GDP of Brazil, a country with over 215 million people.
