Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On November 15, 2010, we issued our opinion on the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) fiscal years 2010 and 2009 financial statements. We also issued our opinion on the effectiveness of SEC's internal controls over financial reporting as of September 30, 2010, and our evaluation of SEC's compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations during fiscal year 2010. In that report we identified material weaknesses in SEC's controls. The purpose of this report is to present (1) more detailed information and our recommendations related to the material weaknesses we reported and discussed in our opinion report; (2) less significant internal control issues we identified during our fiscal year 2010 audit of SEC's internal controls and accounting procedures, along with our related recommended corrective actions; (3) summary information on the status of the recommendations reported as open in our March 31, 2010, management report, and (4) the status of the security weaknesses in information systems controls at SEC that we identified in public and "Limited Official Use Only" reports issued in 2005 through 2009, that were unresolved at the time of our March 31, 2010, management …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is GAO's ninth annual assessment of Department of Defense (DOD) weapon system acquisitions, an area that is on GAO's high-risk list. The report is in response to the mandate in the joint explanatory statement to the DOD Appropriations Act, 2009. It includes observations on the performance of DOD's 2010 portfolio of 98 major defense acquisition programs; data on selected factors that can affect program outcomes; an assessment of the knowledge attained by key junctures in the acquisition process for a subset of 40 programs, which were selected because they were in development or early production; and observations on the implementation of acquisition reforms. To conduct this review, GAO analyzed cost, schedule, and quantity data from DOD's Selected Acquisition Reports and collected data from program offices on performance requirements and software development; technology, design, and manufacturing knowledge; and the implementation of DOD's acquisition policy and acquisition reforms. GAO also compiled one- or two-page assessments of 71 weapon programs. These programs were selected based on their cost, stage in the acquisition process, and congressional interest. DOD disagreed with GAO's use of total program cost growth as a …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Every tax filing season is a large-scale undertaking during which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) interacts with taxpayers by processing returns, issuing refunds, answering telephone calls, and providing other services, both face-to-face and on its Web site. As part of processing returns and before refunds are issued, IRS uses its statutory authority to automatically correct errors. This allows IRS to avoid costly and burdensome audits and taxpayers to be made aware of additional taxes owed before being required to pay interest and penalties. For the 2011 filing season, IRS is administering a number of complex tax law changes, including the Residential Energy Property Tax Credit and provisions enacted in December 2010 as part of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (commonly known as the tax extenders). Other changes for the 2011 filing season include paid preparer regulations and expanded efforts to provide refunds on debit cards. In 2011, for the first time, paid preparers must register with IRS. In the future, certain paid preparers will be subject to competency tests and continuing education requirements to be allowed to prepare tax …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since established as a naval base in December 1942, Naval Station Mayport, Florida, as grown to become the third largest naval fleet concentration area in the United States and the second largest on the East Coast. During this time, the base has served as the home port for multiple types of Navy surface ships--reaching a peak of over 30 ships including two conventional carriers in 1987. The most recent conventionally powered carrier to be homeported there--the USS John F. Kennedy--was decommissioned in 2007. Prior to the USS John F. Kennedy's retirement, the Department of Defense's (DOD) 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review called for the Navy to provide more warfighting assets more quickly to multiple locations, and, to meet this requirement, the Navy made a preliminary decision to homeport additional surface ships at Mayport. The Navy subsequently prepared an environmental impact statement to evaluate a broad range of strategic home port and dispersal options for Atlantic Fleet surface ships in Mayport and on January 14, 2009, issued its decision to pursue an option that would include the first-time homeporting of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Mayport. The Navy's decision was …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) financial outlook has deteriorated as customers have shifted to electronic alternatives. Mail volumes have declined over 20 percent since fiscal year 2006 and are expected to continue declining. To help its financial outlook, in March 2010, USPS presented a detailed proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to move from a 6-day to a 5-day delivery schedule. USPS projected this would save about $3 billion annually and reduce mail volume by less than l percent. This proposal factors in widespread changes to USPS's workforce and networks. USPS has also asked Congress to not include language in its annual appropriation requiring 6 day-a-week delivery. As requested, GAO assessed (1) USPS's cost and volume estimates and the operational impacts associated with its 5-day delivery proposal and (2) the trade-offs and other implications associated with this proposal. GAO reviewed USPS's proposal (including its assumptions, methodologies, and conclusions) and other information from the PRC's 5-day delivery proceeding, surveyed postal employee and mailer groups, and interviewed USPS officials and postal employee groups. Because GAO previously recommended that Congress consider providing financial relief to USPS, as well …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses tools available to minimize Department of Defense (DOD) cost overruns and our recent work on the Nunn-McCurdy process. For nearly 30 years, the statutory provision known as Nunn-McCurdy has been a tool for Congress to use to hold DOD accountable for cost growth on major defense programs. The purpose of the statute was to provide Congress greater visibility into major defense programs' cost growth and to encourage DOD to manage and control cost growth. A Nunn-McCurdy breach occurs when a program's unit cost exceeds certain thresholds. When that happens, DOD must notify Congress of the breach. There are two types of Nunn-McCurdy breaches: significant breaches and critical breaches. A breach of the significant cost growth threshold occurs when the program acquisition unit cost or the procurement unit cost increases by at least 15 percent over the current baseline estimate or at least 30 percent over the original baseline estimate. A breach of the critical cost growth threshold occurs when the program acquisition unit cost or the procurement unit cost increases by at least 25 percent over the current baseline estimate or at least 50 percent …