Defense financial managers are under unprecedented pressure to protect every dollar, prove compliance continuously, and deliver real‑time insight to leaders. Yet payment integrity efforts across many DoW organizations still rely on periodic sampling, manual reviews, and after‑the‑fact audits—leaving costly blind spots for fraud, waste, and abuse in civilian pay, military pay, contract/vendor payments, travel, and other disbursement streams. This panel will demonstrate how DoW organizations can strengthen and fully operationalize payment integrity as a core component of OMB Circular A‑123, transforming it from a compliance exercise into a proactive, data‑driven control environment. Drawing on lessons from audit, DFAS operations, and large‑scale ERP modernization, panelists will show how automating continuous control monitoring and advanced analytics can be embedded across the end‑to‑end payment lifecycle—from master data and obligation processing through disbursement and post‑payment review. Using real examples and anonymized metrics, we will illustrate how organizations have identified high‑risk transactions, reduced improper payments, accelerated remediation of control weaknesses, and strengthened auditability. The session will primarily use a moderated panel discussion format, augmented by brief audience fact polls to reveal misconceptions and highlight the measurable impact that an effective control program can have on payment integrity. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies to start small—automating one control, one reconciliation, or one high‑risk payment stream—and then scale toward a mature, sustainable payment integrity program aligned with A‑123, audit readiness, and PPBE reform.