Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) progress in implementing key components of Title 32 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 including NNSA's reorganization efforts; integrated planning, programming, and budgeting improvements; use of its excepted service personnel authority; and efforts to improve its procurement practices. GAO found that although NNSA announced a new headquarters organization in May 2001, the reorganization did not clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the headquarters organizational units and did not address NNSA's field organization at all. More importantly, NNSA still lacks an overall organizational structure that clearly addresses long-standing issues such as the division of roles and responsibilities among headquarters offices and between headquarters and field staff. NNSA lost some momentum during the summer of 2001 as it reevaluated its efforts to develop a new planning, programming, budgeting, and evaluation process. NNSA now has established a conceptual process and begun to develop the necessary implementation plans and procedures. However, because of the broad scope of the work needed to develop these plans and procedures, it will be difficult to fully implement NNSA's process in time for the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the management of the air transportation network used to move checks from one Federal Reserve office to another. GAO studied the propriety of practices for bidding, awarding, and monitoring contracts and the adequacy of controls to monitor fuel and other payments to vendors. The network was moved to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (FRB Atlanta) in September 1998 and renamed Check Relay. Check Relay's internal controls are designed to ensure that each step of the contract evaluation and approval process conforms to FRB Atlanta and Federal Reserve System policies and that appropriate senior officials review and approve contract terms. Check Relay also ensures that all payments to vendors conform to contract terms. Another set of controls verifies that the amount of fuel used by Check Relay's vendors is consistent with expected levels and that fuel is provided only to the appropriate recipients. Check Relay is managed as a unit of the Retail Payments Office, which is managed out of FRB Atlanta. The Board's Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems also has oversight responsibility over Check Relay. GAO found no evidence …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified deficiencies in the design of key control procedures relied on by the Army and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service-Indianapolis (DFAS-IN) to detect errors in payroll disbursements to active duty Army military personnel. Specifically, GAO found that the Army's procedures for reviewing Unit Commander Finance Reports (UCFR) do not (1) provide for monitoring of required UCFR reviews to better assure detection of payroll errors, (2) require reporting on completed UCFR reviews in all cases, and (3) clearly establish time frames for completing and reporting on UCFR reviews. GAO's analysis of DFAS data on military pay debts and Army investigations of potential fraud completed over the past 2 years identified numerous instances of the effect of errors or irregularities in Army active duty payroll disbursements that went undetected for lengthy periods of time, including some that were not detected for up to 2 years or until the soldier left the Army. For example:"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "USAID and USDA share broad objectives for nonemergency food aid programs; however, the agencies have established some planning processes to limit overlap in these programs. For example, both USAID and USDA have objectives that address financial services, infrastructure, agricultural productivity, agribusiness development, and child and maternal nutrition needs in food insecure countries. Some of these shared objectives are the result of authorizing legislation, through which Congress outlines nonemergency food aid objectives, while others are included in presidential initiatives and agency strategies. We also found that USAID and USDA nonemergency food aid programs shared common geographic focus areas in which they implemented similar activities. For example, in fiscal year 2011, both USAID and USDA had nonemergency food aid programs in Guatemala and Uganda and both programs were providing agricultural training. Furthermore, implementing partners in Guatemala and Uganda administering programs for both agencies told us that USAID and USDA have parallel administrative structures in the field and distinct requirements for performance management. However, we found that these agencies have established some processes to plan and coordinate country activities in efforts to limit overlap. For example, to improve coordination in nonemergency …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United States Capitol Preservation Commission receives commemorative coin surcharge funds authorized by the United States Capitol Visitor Center Commemorative Coin Act of 1999. Under the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 and the U.S. Mint's Compliance Procedures for Surcharge Eligibility, the commission must meet certain requirements before receiving available coin surcharge funds. The commission must provide the U.S. Mint with eligibility-related assertions associated with the commission's receipt and use of private matching funds, and an independent auditor must examine the assertions. GAO found that the assertion about the commission's receipt and use of private matching funds pursuant to the law and the U.S. Mint's Compliance Procedures for Surcharge Eligibility are fairly stated in all respects."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established a program known as U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) to collect, maintain, and share information, including biometric identifiers, on certain foreign nationals who travel to and from the United States. By congressional mandate, DHS is to develop and submit an expenditure plan for US-VISIT that satisfies certain conditions, including being reviewed by GAO. GAO's objectives were to (1) determine if the plan satisfies the twelve legislative conditions and (2) provide observations about the plan and management of the program. To accomplish this, GAO assessed the plan and related DHS certification letters against each aspect of each legislative condition and assessed program documentation against federal guidelines and industry standards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In GAO's opinion, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service's (Fiscal Service) Schedules of Federal Debt for fiscal years 2013 and 2012 were fairly presented in all material respects, and although information systems controls could be improved, Fiscal Service maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting relevant to the Schedule of Federal Debt as of September 30, 2013. GAO's tests disclosed no instances of reportable noncompliance for fiscal year 2013 with selected provisions of applicable laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements related to the Schedule of Federal Debt."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2012, GAO reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees identified having lower average morale than the average for the rest of the federal government, but morale varied across components. Specifically, GAO found that, according to the Office of Personnel Management's 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), DHS employees had 4.5 percentage points lower job satisfaction and 7.0 percentage point lower engagement--the extent to which employees are immersed in their work and spending extra effort on job performance. Several components with lower morale, such as the Transportation Security Administration, made up a substantial share of FEVS respondents at DHS and accounted for a significant portion of the overall difference between the department and other agencies. In September 2012, GAO recommended that DHS take action to better determine the root cause of low employee morale, and where absent, add benchmarking against similar organizations, among other things. Since September 2012, DHS has taken a number of actions intended to improve employee morale, such as directing component human capital officials to reevaluate their action plans to ensure that metrics of success are clear and measurable. In December 2013, GAO …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Based on data reviewed from BLM's Bond Review Report, mine operators had provided financial assurances valued at approximately $1.5 billion to guarantee reclamation costs for 1,365 hardrock operations on federal land managed by BLM. We determined that 57 hardrock operations had inadequate financial assurances--amounting to about $24 million less than needed to fully cover estimated reclamation costs. Nevada had the largest number of hardrock mining operations and the largest number of inadequate financial assurances. As we have reported, BLM has taken some steps to strengthen and improve its management of hardrock financial assurances but has not yet addressed the issues we identified in 2008 regarding how the Bond Review Report calculates the total value of those financial assurances that are inadequate. To improve its management of hardrock financial assurances, BLM in 2009 issued IM 2009-153, which, among other things, directs periodic review of reclamation cost estimates for all ongoing operations to ensure the current cost estimate and the amount of the required financial assurance continue to meet applicable regulatory requirements. However, we found that only two BLM state offices--Montana and Wyoming--fully implemented IM 2009-153 by conducting timely reviews …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO investigated a complaint about improper activities at the Keystone Job Corps Training Center in Drums, Pennsylvania. The complaint alleged the center was enrolling individuals who were at a state prison facility, the Youth Services Agency. The complaint alleged that these individuals posed a threat to the safety and well being of the regular student population at the Keystone Job Corps Training Center. GAO found that, contrary to the allegations, the Youth Services Agency is not a state prison. It is a facility for youths convicted of delinquency-related offenses. GAO also found that enrollees were screened to determine whether they were disruptive or dangerous."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that DISH complied with the Special Master's examination. DISH provided the Special Master with information on its subscribers and royalty payments, and cooperated on a survey of all major network-affiliated broadcast stations nationwide. Since our March 23, 2012, report, the Special Master issued a report noting that there was no substantial evidence of improprieties by DISH regarding the Section 119 statutory license."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Ranking Democratic Member, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, asked GAO to determine (1) whether VA's internal assessments indicate its regional offices are complying with the requirements of the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) of 2000 for obtaining military service records for veterans' disability compensation claims and (2) whether VBA could improve its procedures for obtaining military service records for claims involving post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The QI program enrolled about 426,000 individuals nationwide in 2009--the most recent year for which comprehensive enrollment data were available--with expenditures of about $431 million. While QI enrollment increased 30 percent from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2009, program expenditures increased at a slightly faster rate, rising 39 percent during this time. On average, one quarter of individuals potentially eligible for the QI program were enrolled during fiscal years 2006 through 2009. However, the percentage of eligible individuals enrolled in the program climbed from 21 percent in fiscal year 2006 to 29 percent in fiscal year 2009. CMS does not have comprehensive national data on TMA enrollment and expenditures; the 41 states that had enrollment data reported that over 3.5 million individuals were enrolled in TMA in 2011, the most recent year for which complete enrollment data were reported by the highest number of states. Fewer states were able to report TMA expenditure data; however, 32 states reported TMA total expenditures of about $3.9 billion in 2011."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Secretary of Defense announced a new business transformation program in 2001 with the intent of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of Department of Defense business operations. Concerned that the previous administration's Defense Reform Initiatives (DRI) could not be successful without many years of sustained effort, the Senate Committee on Armed Services issued a September 2001 report directing GAO to assess which DRI initiatives have been carried forward. In completing this assessment, GAO also examined the management structure and types of initiatives contained in the new business transformation program. Also at the request of the Committee, more detailed information on the status of the logistics reform and electronic business/electronic commerce initiatives is provided in the GAO report. GAO interviewed officials involved with the former DRI initiatives, as well as officials operating at all levels of the new business transformation program. In commenting on a draft of this report, DOD concurred with GAO's findings."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The tax filing season is when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has most of its contacts with taxpayers, answering questions and processing returns and refunds. The 2008 filing season was particularly challenging due to the unanticipated mandate to make economic stimulus payments. The filing season is also the start of IRS's efforts to ensure the newly filed returns are compliant with the tax laws. GAO was asked to assess IRS's performance, describe the costs and foregone revenue of administering the economic stimulus payments, and identify any opportunities for improving filing season compliance checks. GAO analyzed IRS performance data, reviewed IRS operations, and interviewed IRS officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As of August 2013, the Chief Information Officers (CIO) at the eight selected agencies rated 198 of their 244 major information technology (IT) investments listed on the Federal IT Dashboard (Dashboard) as low risk or moderately low risk, 41 as medium risk, and 5 as high risk or moderately high risk. However, the total number of investments reported by these agencies has varied over time, which impacts the number of investments receiving CIO ratings. For example, Energy reclassified several of its supercomputer investments from IT to facilities and Commerce decided to reclassify its satellite ground system investments. Both decisions resulted in the removal of the investments from the Dashboard, even though the investments were clearly IT. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not update the public version of the Dashboard as the President's budget request is being created. As a result, the public version of the Dashboard was not updated for 15 of the past 24 months, and so was not available as a tool for investment oversight and decision making."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. insular areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), face long-standing economic, fiscal, and financial accountability challenges. GAO was requested to identify and report on the (1) economic challenges facing each government, including the effect of changing tax and trade laws on their economies; (2) fiscal condition of each government; and (3) financial accountability of each government, including compliance with the Single Audit Act, which applies to nonfederal entities that receive $500,000 or more a year in federal funding."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To address concerns about unemployed or underemployed Soviet-era weapons scientists in Russia and other countries, the Department of Energy (DOE) established the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program in 1994 to engage former Soviet weapons scientists in nonmilitary work in the short term and create private sector jobs for these scientists in the long term. GAO assessed (1) DOE's reported accomplishments for the IPP program, (2) DOE's exit strategy for the program, and (3) the extent to which the program has experienced annual carryovers of unspent funds and the reasons for any such carryovers. To address these issues, GAO analyzed DOE policies, plans, and budgets and interviewed key program officials and representatives from 22 Russian and Ukrainian institutes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2010 required that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) be amended within 180 days after enactment to require justifications for 8(a) sole-source contracts over $20 million. These justifications bring more attention to large 8(a) sole source contracts. The FAR Council, which updates the FAR, missed this mandatory deadline by almost 325 days. During this delay, based on data in the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), 42 sole-source 8(a) contracts with reported values over $20 million, totaling over $2.3 billion, were awarded without being subject to a justification. Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) representatives involved with the FAR Council's implementation of this rule attributed the delay primarily to the time required to establish a process for consulting with Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Corporations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1990, GAO has designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) inventory management as a high-risk area. It is critical that the military services and the Defense Logistics Agency effectively and efficiently manage DOD's secondary inventory to ensure that the warfighter is supplied with the right items at the right time. It is also imperative that they maintain good stewardship over the billions of dollars invested in their inventory. GAO reviewed the Navy's management of secondary inventory and determined (1) the extent to which on-hand and on-order secondary inventory reflected the amount needed to support current requirements and (2) causes for the Navy's having secondary inventory in excess of current requirements or, conversely, for having inventory deficits. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed Navy secondary inventory data (spare parts such as aircraft and ship engines and their components and accessories) from fiscal years 2004 through 2007."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A small percentage of U.S. families saved in 529 plans in 2010, and those who did tended to be wealthier than others. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), less than 3 percent of families saved in a 529 plan or Coverdell Education Savings Account (Coverdell)--a similar but less often used college savings vehicle also included in the SCF. While the economic downturn may have reduced income available for education savings, even among those families who considered saving for education a priority, fewer than 1 in 10 had a 529 plan (or Coverdell). Families with these accounts had about 25 times the median financial assets of those without. They also had about 3 times the median income and the percentage who had college degrees was about twice as high as for families without 529 plans (or Coverdells)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) is credited with stabilizing insurance markets after the September 11, 2001, attacks by requiring insurers to offer terrorism coverage to commercial property owners (property/casualty insurance), and specifying that the federal government is liable for a large share of related losses. While TRIA covers attacks involving conventional weapons, insurers may use exceptions that may exclude coverage for attacks with nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological (NBCR) weapons, which has raised concerns about the potential economic consequences of such attacks. TRIA's 2007 reauthorization directed GAO to review (1) the extent to which insurers offer NBCR coverage, (2) factors that contribute to the willingness of insurers to provide NBCR coverage, and (3) policy options for expanding coverage for NBCR risks. To do this work, GAO reviewed studies and reports and interviewed more than 100 industry participants about the availability of NBCR coverage in the market. GAO provided a draft of this report to the Department of the Treasury and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Treasury and NAIC said that they found the report informative and useful. NAIC did express what …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) overseas schools educate more than 70,000 children of military service members and DOD civilian employees throughout the world. In order to ensure the continued success of this school system, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 directed GAO to assess whether the DOD overseas teachers' compensation package is adequate to recruit and retain qualified teachers. The act also required GAO to determine whether any revisions to the law governing DOD overseas teachers' salaries were advisable."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some grocery supermarket companies have been charging food product manufacturers "slotting fees" to place products in stores and have involved large product manufacturers in making decisions about what products to sell. These practices have raised concerns about anticompetitive behavior and may be adversely affecting small businesses. GAO was asked (1) if the Defense Commissary Agency is using these practices in managing military commissaries; (2) what proportion of products sold by commissaries are produced by small businesses; and (3) if small businesses face barriers in selling products through commissaries and how opportunities for small business could be improved."