The RRB is committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities, not only to the railroad community but as a member of the larger Federal Government community. We will run the agency in an efficient, effective manner, treat our employees with the respect they deserve, and ensure that funds appropriated for agency operations are spent for their intended purposes. We will also take appropriate action to safeguard the funds used for benefit payments. The following objectives will chart our success toward this broad goal.
Ensure that Trust Fund Assets are Protected, Collected, Recorded, and Reported Appropriately
The RRB is committed to prudent financial practices and reporting. To accomplish this commitment, we will continue to issue audited financial statements, monitor the solvency of the trust funds through a sound program of actuarial valuations and financial projections and correctly estimate amounts needed for future benefit payments.
In instances where erroneous payments do occur, the RRB will apply its debt collection and management policies in a fair and equitable manner. The agency will carefully review individual cases to identify amounts eligible for waiver. Debts not subject to waiver will be collected, either directly or through referral to Treasury.
Ensure the Accuracy and Integrity of Benefit Programs
The RRB is committed to paying the right benefits to the right people. We have measures in place to track the accuracy of processing actions under both the RRA and the RUIA. The principal indicator of accuracy is the benefit payment accuracy rate in each program, which measures the percentage of dollars paid out correctly. Our long-term performance goal is to meet or exceed 99-percent payment accuracy in the payments we initiate in a given year. To accomplish these goals, we will monitor the accuracy of award actions through automated programs and specialized reviews of a statistically significant sample of cases. These efforts look at performance trends and identify problem areas. In turn, we use this information to provide constructive feedback for process improvements, enhance performance appraisal/management and identify possible automation initiatives or training needs.
Under the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, as amended, and the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010, the RRB reviews and reports on the amount of erroneous payments and engages in activities to reduce and recover them. Since improper payment reporting began, the amounts attributable to the RRB's two benefit programs (RRA and RUIA) have been below the thresholds (1: An improper payment amount greater than $10 million, and (2: An imporper payment reate greater than 2.5%) identified in the law and related guidance issued by OMB.
As part of our fiduciary responsibilities to the rail community, we must ensure that the correct amount of benefits is being paid to the right people. Our primary approach in this area is to electronically match our benefit payments against SSA's earnings and benefits database and death-reports file, CMS's utilization and death records, and reports of wages to state agencies. We also refer cases to the RRB's OIG, which can recommend civil or criminal prosecution upon completion of its investigation. We will continue these matching and monitoring programs, as well as our program integrity reviews whereby individual cases are reviewed on a periodic basis, such as obtaining information on medical improvement in disability cases, and contacting annuitants whenever discrepancies are identified through these matching programs or other sources of information. We measure the efficiency of our program integrity activities through a review and comparison of the savings they produce and the cost of administering them.
Ensure Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Security of Operations
How we conduct our business is a key indicator of good stewardship. The RRB is committed to effective, efficient and secure internal operations. The agency has a long-range plan for complete modernization of RRB processing systems to support this commitment. Many factors and programs contribute to this goal. We use a management control review process for critical agency programs to provide reasonable assurance of their effectiveness, efficiency and security, with corrective action taken to address any identified weaknesses. In addition we perform a variety of quality assurance activities to ensure that our benefit programs comply with established policies, standards and procedures.
An increasingly important consideration for the agency is to safeguard our customers' privacy and enable them to conduct business with the RRB in a secure environment. We continually make notable progress in strengthening and improving computer security by following the Federal Information System Management Act guidelines for identifying and resolving risks associated with our agency information systems. We will continue to develop risk assessments and conduct periodic vulnerability assessments on informational assets, while deploying advanced security technologies to protect against physical and cyber-security threats.
The RRB has also taken steps to comply with a security directive that requires enhanced identity verification of Federal employees, including use of a more sophisticated identification card containing a chip with biometric data (i.e., fingerprints) that will be common to all Federal agencies. The RRB's shared-services agreement with GSA provides an enterprise-wide compliant Personal Identity Verification credential solution with integration into the agency's physical and logical access control systems.
Effectively Carry Out Responsibilities with Respect to the NRRIT
The NRRIT was created by the Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001 to oversee investment of the railroad retirement trust funds. While the RRB no longer manages investment of trust fund monies, it continues to have responsibilities in ensuring that the NRRIT, and its seven-member Board of Trustees, complies with the provisions of the RRA as amended by the Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001. We fulfill these obligations through periodic meetings between the RRB's three-member Board and the NRRIT's trustees, more frequent meetings between the agency's General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer and NRRIT officials, and review of monthly and annual reports submitted by the NRRIT, including the audit reports on the NRRIT annual financial statements. The RRB has authority to bring civil action should these reviews indicate any violation of the RRA or non-compliance with any of the provisions of the law. We also post information about the NRRIT and its activities on the agency website for the benefit of our customers and stakeholders.