Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal, state, and local governments share responsibility in preparing for catastrophic terrorist attacks. Because the national security threat is diffuse and the challenge is intergovernmental, national policymakers need a firm understanding of the interests, capacity, and challenges when formulating antiterrorism strategies. Key aspects of this strategy should include a definition and clarification of the appropriate roles and responsibilities of federal, state, and local entities. GAO's has found fragmentation and overlap among federal assistance programs. More than 40 federal entities have roles in combating terrorism, and past federal efforts have resulted in a lack of accountability, a lack of cohesive effort, and duplication of programs. This situation has led to confusion, making it difficult to identify available federal preparedness resources and effectively partner with the federal government. Goals and performance measures should be established to guide the nation's preparedness efforts. For the nation's preparedness programs, however, outcomes have yet to be defined in terms of domestic preparedness. Given the recent and proposed increases in preparedness funding, real and meaningful improvements in preparedness and establishing clear goals and performance measures are critical to ensuring a successful and a fiscally responsible …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To control the export of defense items, the U.S. government requires exporters to obtain a license from the State Department. A license is not required to export many defense items to Canada, currently the only country-specific exemption to the licensing requirement. In May 2000, the U.S. government announced the Defense Trade Security Initiative, which included a proposal to grant Canadian-like export licensing exemptions to other qualified countries. Since the initiative was announced, the State Department has been negotiating such exemptions with the United Kingdom and Australia. Exporters have been implementing the Canadian exemption inconsistently. Moreover, some exporters are interpreting reporting requirements about the use of the exemption differently. The U.S. government has mechanisms in place to reduce the risk of defense items being inappropriately exported, but there are associated limitations. U.S. Customs officials attributed these enforcement weaknesses to a lack of information and resources, including inspectors to staff ports. In addition, there are competing demands on the agency, which include the prevention of terrorism, and the interdiction of illicit drugs, illegal currency, and stolen vehicles. Experience with the Canadian exemption shows that three areas need to …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army National Guard's funding requests for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 were overstated by $42.9 million and $31.6 million, respectively, because of inaccurate military strength and participation rates used to develop projected and actual military force levels. To correct these overstatements, the Guard is placing more emphasis on an existing personnel database reporting system that identifies the personnel assigned to a unit but who have not been paid for inactive duty training for three months or more. The Guard also improved the method it uses to calculate inactive duty training participation rates, now basing the rate on the number of people who have actually been paid for training, rather than on expected program costs."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO released an exposure draft on its Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, which is intended to help federal agency leaders better manage their organizations' most important asset--their people. The model is designed to help agency leaders effectively use their people, or human capital, and determine how well they integrate human capital considerations into daily decision-making and planning for the program results they seek to achieve. In so doing, the model highlights the importance of a sustained commitment by agency leaders to maximize the value of their agencies' human capital and manage related risks."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This Executive Guide describes fundamental practices and procedures used in the private sector to achieve consistent and accurate physical counts of inventory and related property. The Guide summarizes the fundamental principles that have been successfully implemented by companies recognized for their outstanding record of inventory management. It also explains and describes leading practices from which the federal government may be able to draw lessons and ideas. This guide applies to most forms of federal inventory, but some of the practices discussed may not be applicable to bulk, natural resource, and nonturning inventories, such as the Department of Energy's strategic petroleum reserve."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A growing backlog of cases and longer processing times have prompted concern about the management of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Offer in Compromise (OIC) Program. OIC inventory and processing time have grown despite significant increases in program staff. Program changes increased the demand for offers, the number of processing steps, and the number of staff hours needed to process the case. Yet, the demand for offers exceeded staff's capacity to process them. The extent to which IRS' current initiatives would reduce the OIC Program inventory and processing time is uncertain. The current initiatives are intended to separate the processing of less complex and more complex offers, with lower-grade staff using standardized procedures to process less complex offers and higher-grade staff specializing in more complex offers. IRS projects that the initiatives will stabilize the inventory and keep up with the flow of new offers by the end of fiscal year 2002. IRS met the requirements of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 by independently reviewing all proposed offer rejections, considering the facts and circumstances of each taxpayer when determining allowances for monthly living expenses, …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the views of members of state technical committees on (1) the effectiveness of USDA's conservation efforts in addressing environmental concerns related to agriculture, (2) any program elements that hinder the achievement of related environmental objectives, and (3) any program characteristics that current or new programs might include to better meet these objectives. GAO summarizes the responses of the state technical committee members and stratifies them by geographic region and organization."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) provides the military with computing, telecommunications, and acquisition services on a cost reimbursable basis. In fiscal year 2001, DISA's service reimbursements totaled $2.5 billion. DISA also runs joint warfighting and related mission support command, control, and communications systems funded by direct appropriations, which in fiscal year 2001 were $1 billion. In March 2001, DISA issued a 500 Day Action Plan for Supporting DoD Decision Superiority. The plan contains 140 ongoing or planned actions involving the investment of resources. In developing the plan, DISA appropriately focused on understanding and satisfying customer concerns and needs. DISA did not, however, adequately address other elements of effective plan development, such as ensuring that planned investments were cost-effective. Although the agency did not establish baseline commitments in developing its action plan, DISA has since established some, but not all, baselines and is beginning to monitor progress against these commitments. DISA's 500 Day Action Plan is part of management actions to improve mission performance. These actions address some, but not all, of the institutional management controls that can help an agency effectively adjust to shifts in …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The military services primarily operate two types of hotels, or lodges, to support official travelers. The first, called permanent-change-of-station (PCS) lodges, support military personnel and their families moving to new duty stations. These are intended to provide military travelers and their families with a clean, affordable place to stay while they prepare to move and while they wait for permanent quarters at their new station. The second type, called temporary duty (TDY) lodges, support military and civilians temporarily traveling on official business. PCS lodges are the subject of a proposed policy change by the Department of Defense (DOD). DOD's current policy permits PCS lodges to be managed as part of morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) programs. The proposed policy would change this practice by requiring separation of lodge revenues from those used for MWR purposes. Except for the Marine Corps, the proposed policy change will not impact the services' MWR programs. Only the Marine Corps currently uses PCS lodge earnings to support its MWR programs. From fiscal years 1996 through 2000, the net profits reported by the Marine Corps' lodges steadily increased from $1.8 million to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Often suffering from multiple physical and mental impairments, the 1.5 million elderly and disabled Americans living in nursing homes are a highly vulnerable population. These individuals typically require extensive help with daily living, such as such as dressing, feeding, and bathing. Many require skilled nursing or rehabilitative care. In recent years, reports of inadequate care, including malnutrition, dehydration, and other forms of neglect, have led to mounting scrutiny from state and federal authorities, which share responsibility for overseeing the nation's 17,000 nursing homes. Concerns have also been growing that some residents are abused--pushed, slapped, or beaten--by the very individuals to whom their care has been entrusted. GAO found that allegations of physical and sexual abuse of nursing home residents are not reported promptly. Local law enforcement officials said that they are seldom summoned to nursing homes to immediately investigate allegations of abuse and that few allegations are ever prosecuted. Some agencies use different policies when deciding whether to refer allegations of abuse to law enforcement. As a result, law enforcement agencies were never told of some incidents or were notified only after lengthy delays. GAO found …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) relied on its 11 coal-burning plants to supply 60 percent of its electric power in fiscal year 2001. These plants account for almost all of TVA's emissions of two key air pollutants--sulfur dioxide (SO2), which has been linked to reduced visibility, and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to the formation of harmful ozone. To meet an increase in demand of 1.7 percent annually through 2010, TVA estimates that it will need to expand its current generating capacity of 30,365 megawatts by 500 megawatts annually. Building new generating capacity can produce more emissions, which raises environment concerns. To lessen the need for new capacity, TVA and other electricity suppliers promote the efficient use of electricity through "demand-side management" programs, which seek to reduce the amount of energy consumed or to change the time of day when it is consumed. Even though TVA intends to increase its capacity to generate electricity through 2005, it also expects to reduce its SO2 and NOx emissions during the same time period, primarily by burning lower-sulfur coal, installing devices to control emissions at its existing plants, and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has experienced significant increases in the prices it pays for consumable spare parts, which are "consumed" when used or discarded when worn out because they cannot be cost effectively repaired. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) manages four million consumable spare parts or 93 percent of all consumable spare parts used by the military services. DOD is required to perform price trend analyses on some categories of commercial spare parts, address unreasonable price escalation, and report the results to Congress for three consecutive years beginning in April 2000. DLA has completed two price trend analyses for DOD. In addition to the price trend analyses, DLA also did a procurement management review in fiscal year 2000 to assess the overall risk of spare parts overpricing. The agency also has three information technology initiatives underway to determine price reasonableness for DLA customers and buyers. These efforts are in various stages of completion, and it is too early to assess their results."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) faces growing regulatory and oversight challenges. Technological advances have increased the complexity of securities markets and the range of products offered to the public. More people than ever are invested in securities, either directly or through mutual funds. Technology has also fundamentally changed the way these markets operate and how investors interact with them. SEC routinely prioritizes and allocates resources, but the agency is under increasing pressure because of the staffing imbalances caused by its growing workload. Staffing shortages have delayed critical regulatory activities, such as reviewing rule findings and issuing guidance. Oversight and supervisory functions have also been affected. SEC has tried to address its high turnover by offering special pay rates and retention bonuses, but the lack of funding for pay parity means little relief in the short-term. SEC has generally managed the gap between staff and workload by determining which basic duties mandated by statute could be accomplished with existing resources. This approach has forced SEC to be largely reactive rather than proactive."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory board's statement of federal financial accounting standards (SFFAS). The statement presents amendments to SFFAS No. 8 and No. 6 and rescinds SFFAS No. 11."