National Science Foundation
NSF has one mission program of Grants and Cooperative Agreements and three other mission-related activities – Contracts and Individual Payments, NSF Purchase Cards and Payments to Employees. NSF conducts risk assessments for all programs with outlays over $10M on a three-year risk assessment cycle. The most recent risk assessment was performed in FY 2024, which concluded that the agency does not have any programs which are likely to be susceptible to significant improper payments. Based on NSF’s risk assessment, all of these programs and activities are considered Phase I in accordance with Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA). NSF Purchase Cards outlays were below the $10M threshold for FY 2025.
Show full executive summaryRecovery information
Please note: Overpayment amounts recovered are reported in the year they were recovered, not the year they were identified. Therefore it is possible in some years to have a recovery rate greater than 100%.
| Overpayment amount identified through recovery activities | $16.01 M |
| Overpayment amount recovered through recovery activities | $16.01 M |
| Recovery activities recovery rate | 100.0 % |
Why recovery audits are not cost effective in certain programs
NSF does not conduct recovery audits. NSF's analysis determined that it would not be cost effective for the agency to conduct a recovery audit program. No circumstances have changed within any of NSF's programs that require an additional recovery audit cost-effectiveness analysis.
Supplemental Information
All NSF payments are compliant with Treasury’s Payment Application Modernization format and are screened against the following data sources: Social Security Death Master File (DMF) [public information] and the GSA System for Award Management (SAM) Exclusion Records [restricted information]. Any subsequent matches are viewable in Treasury’s DNP online portal for adjudication purposes. There was 1 positive DNP match to a payment of $400 that NSF issued in FY2025 which was determined to be proper.
The Working System has reduced/prevented improper payments:
The Working System strives to maintain accurate data. However, the past year, NSF has identified incorrect information in the Working System Annually.
NSF was found compliant during the most recent PIIA compliance review.
Show full list of compliant programs 
Compliant programs:
- Contracts and Individual Payments
- Grants and Cooperative Agreements
- Payments to Employees
- Purchase Cards - National Science Foundation
| Program name | When was the last improper payment risk assessment conducted? | Likely to be susceptible to significant improper payments? | Substantial changes made to the assessment methodology used for the reporting cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contracts and Individual Payments | 2024 |
 No
|
|
| Grants and Cooperative Agreements | 2024 |
No
|
|
| Payments to Employees | 2024 |
No
|
|
| Purchase Cards - National Science Foundation | 2024 |
No
|