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Direct Student Loans: Additional Steps Would Increase Borrowers' Awareness of Electronic Debiting and Reduce Federal Administrative Costs (open access)

Direct Student Loans: Additional Steps Would Increase Borrowers' Awareness of Electronic Debiting and Reduce Federal Administrative Costs

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1999, the Department of Education (Education) has offered a 0.25 percent interest rate reduction to borrowers who agree to an electronic debit (EDA) program. Borrowers pay a lower interest rate, while the federal government receives fewer late payments. Any revenue loss to the federal government from a reduced interest rate would be more than offset by a gain in revenue because some EDA borrowers who had previously paid by check would stop making periodic payments in excess of their scheduled amount due. By ceasing to make these prepayments, these borrowers would not pay off their loans as soon as they would have without signing up for EDA and, therefore, incur additional interest costs over the life of their loans. Although actual EDA enrollments have exceeded original estimates, Education lacks data on prepayment patterns after borrowers enroll in the program. Education has not informed borrowers of the cost implications of EDA participation, nor has it systematically informed borrowers of their prepayment options. GAO estimates that Education saved $1.5 million in administrative costs in fiscal year 2001 because it did not have to mail bills to EDA …
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Technology: DLA Needs to Strengthen Its Investment Management Capability (open access)

Information Technology: DLA Needs to Strengthen Its Investment Management Capability

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) relies extensively on information technology (IT) to carry out its logistics support mission. This report focuses on DLA's processes for making informed IT investment decisions. Because IT investment management has only recently become an area of management focus and commitment at DLA, the agency's ability to effectively manage IT investments is limited. The first step toward establishing effective investment management is putting in place foundational, project-level control and selection processes. The second step toward effective investment management is to continually assess proposed and ongoing projects as an integrated and competing set of investment options. Accomplishing these two steps requires effective development and implementation of a plan, supported by senior management, which defines and prioritizes investment process improvements. Without a well-defined process improvement plan and controls for implementing it, it is unlikely that the agency will establish a mature investment management capability. As a result, GAO continues to question DLA's ability to make informed and prudent investment decisions in IT."
Date: March 15, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Children's Health Insurance: Inspector General Reviews Should Be Expanded to Further Inform the Congress (open access)

Children's Health Insurance: Inspector General Reviews Should Be Expanded to Further Inform the Congress

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress created the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997 to reduce the number of uninsured children in families with incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid. Financed jointly by the states and the federal government, SCHIP encourages state participation by offering a higher federal matching rate than the Medicaid program. Concerns have been raised that states might inappropriately enroll Medicaid-eligible children in SCHIP and thus obtain higher federal matching funds than allowed under Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that Medicaid-eligible children were not being enrolled in SCHIP by the 13 states that administer separate child health care programs. Furthermore, the issue of appropriate enrollment is not limited to states with completely separate child health programs but also applies to those states with combination programs and Medicaid expansions, which also receive the higher SCHIP matching rate. The OIG could not conclude whether states were reducing the number of uninsured children and meeting the objectives and goals they established in their SCHIP programs. The OIG found that some states had set program goals without considering …
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
International Electronic Commerce: Definitions and Policy Implications (open access)

International Electronic Commerce: Definitions and Policy Implications

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The recent, rapid growth in Internet-based computer technologies has significant implications for the United States. The ability to conduct business via the Internet has brought about changes in the way companies do business with each other and in how they interact with consumers. The Internet allows businesses and consumers from different countries to interact as easily as if they were physically close to each other. This borderless aspect of international electronic commerce creates a wider marketplace that facilitates new transactions and business relationships. However, the potential for widespread adoption of international electronic commerce raises questions from the technical to the policy-related. This report provides information on emerging electronic commerce issues, including: (1) what is being done to remove obstacles and facilitate international electronic commerce, (2) efforts to adopt a legal framework for international electronic commerce transactions, and (3) how international trade agreements and negotiations address barriers to international electronic commerce."
Date: March 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Audit: American Battle Monuments Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2000 (open access)

Financial Audit: American Battle Monuments Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2000

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the financial statement audit reports for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) for fiscal years 2000 and 2001. GAO found that (1) the consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2001 and comparative consolidated totals for fiscal year 2000 are presented fairly in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; (2) although internal controls should be improved, AMBC had effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations as of September 30, 2001; and (3) there was no reportable noncompliance with laws and regulations."
Date: March 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
DOD Financial Management: Integrated Approach, Accountability, Transparency, and Incentives Are Keys to Effective Reform (open access)

DOD Financial Management: Integrated Approach, Accountability, Transparency, and Incentives Are Keys to Effective Reform

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) are complex, long-standing, and deeply rooted throughout its business operations. DOD's financial management deficiencies represent the single largest obstacle to achieving an unqualified opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. So far, none of the military services or major DOD components have passed the test of an independent financial audit because of pervasive weaknesses in financial management systems, operations, and controls. These problems go back decades, and earlier attempts at reform have been unsuccessful. DOD continues to rely on a far-flung, complex network of finance, logistics, personnel, acquisition, and other management information systems for financial data to support day-to-day management and decision-making. This network has evolved into an overly complex and error-prone operation with (1) little standardization across DOD components, (2) multiple systems performing the same tasks, (3) the same data stored in multiple systems, (4) manual data entry into multiple systems, and (5) a large number of data translations and interfaces, which combine to exacerbate problems with data integrity. Many of the elements that are crucial to financial management reform and business process transformation--particularly those that rely …
Date: March 6, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Pipeline Safety: Status of Improving Oversight of the Pipeline Industry (open access)

Pipeline Safety: Status of Improving Oversight of the Pipeline Industry

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) oversees 2.2 million miles of pipelines that transport potentially dangerous materials, such as oil and natural gas. OPS has been slow to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry and implement critical pipeline safety improvements. As a result, OPS has the lowest rate of any transportation agency for implementing the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. In recent years, OPS has taken several steps to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry, including requiring "integrity management" programs for individual operators to assess their pipelines for risks, take action to mitigate the risks, and develop program performance measures. OPS has also (1) revised forms and procedures to collect more complete and accurate data, which will enable OPS to better assess the causes of incidents and focus on the greatest risks to pipelines; (2) allowed more states to oversee a broader range of interstate pipeline safety activities; and (3) increased the use of fines. OPS has made progress in responding to recommendations from the Safety Board and statutory requirements, but some key open recommendations and requirements, such as requiring pipeline operators to periodically …
Date: March 19, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Technology: OMB Leadership Critical to Making Needed Enterprise Architecture and E-government Progress (open access)

Information Technology: OMB Leadership Critical to Making Needed Enterprise Architecture and E-government Progress

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "E-government refers to operations that enhance delivery of government information and services. Enterprise architectures provides for successful delivery of e-government applications, which in turn promise improved government performance and accountability. Under the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) leadership, the president's fiscal year 2003 budget proposes 24 e-government initiatives, most involving multiple agencies. These initiatives have laudable goals, including the elimination of redundant, nonintegrated business operations and systems which could save billions of dollars. The success of these initiatives depends in large part on whether they are pursued within the context of enterprise architectures. Approved architectures for most of these initiatives do not currently exist. OMB has been a proponent of enterprise architectures and has recently devoted increased attention to them. However, it can and should play a larger role. The maturity framework and benchmark data about 116 departments, component agencies, and independent agencies GAO reviews in this testimony provide important baseline information against which targeted improvement across the government can be defined and measured."
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Competitive Sourcing: Challenges in Expanding A-76 Governmentwide (open access)

Competitive Sourcing: Challenges in Expanding A-76 Governmentwide

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been at the forefront of federal agencies in using the OMB Circular A-76 process. In 1995, DOD made it a priority to reduce operating costs and free funds for other needs. DOD has also augmented the A-76 program with what it terms strategic sourcing--a broader array of reinvention and reengineering options that may not necessarily involve A-76 competitions. The number of positions--at one point 229,000--that DOD planned to study and the time frames for the studies have varied. Current plans are to study about 183,000 positions between fiscal years 1997 and 2007. Changes in the inventory of commercial activities and the current administration's sourcing initiatives could change the number of positions studied in the future. However, GAO has not evaluated the extent to which these changes might occur. DOD's A-76 program has faced several challenges that may provide valuable lessons learned for other federal agencies. These lessons include the following: (1) studies took longer than initially projected, (2) costs and resources required for the studies were underestimated, (3) selecting and grouping functions to compete can be difficult, and (4) determining and maintaining …
Date: March 6, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Managing for Results: Building on the Momentum for Strategic Human Capital Reform (open access)

Managing for Results: Building on the Momentum for Strategic Human Capital Reform

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the federal government's human capital challenges. The basic problem has been a longstanding lack of a consistent strategic approach to marshalling, managing, and maintaining the government's human capital needs. To overcome this problem, GAO has developed a model of strategic human capital management that highlights the importance of a sustained commitment by agency leaders to maximize the value of their workforce. The Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget have developed tools to assess human capital management efforts that are conceptually consistent with GAO's model. GAO's model emphasizes two central principles. First, people are assets whose value can be enhanced through investment. As with any investment, the goal is to maximize value while managing risk. Second, an organization's human capital approaches should be designed, implemented, and assessed by how well they help pursue its mission and achieve desired results. GAO has also identified a preliminary list of key practices that will enable agencies to acquire, develop, and retain talent. Successful organizational change depends on a willingness by agency leaders to embrace strategic human capital management and related change management approaches."
Date: March 18, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Homelessness: Improving Program Coordination and Client Access to Programs (open access)

Homelessness: Improving Program Coordination and Client Access to Programs

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Many people are homeless for only a short time and get back on their feet with minimal assistance, but others are chronically homeless and need intensive and ongoing assistance. Fifty federal programs exist to help the homeless with housing. Sixteen of these are targeted exclusively to the homeless, and the others are mainstream programs. Targeted programs were funded at $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2001. GAO found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been unable to ensure that adequate coordination occurs among the programs without creating undue administrative burdens for the states and communities. Steps have been taken to improve the coordination of homeless assistance programs within communities and to reduce some of the administrative burdens caused by separate programs. Although low-income populations face barriers to obtaining services provided by mainstream programs, these barriers are compounded by homelessness. In addition, the underlying structure and operations of federal mainstream programs do not ensure that the special needs of homeless people are met. Consolidating HUD's McKinney-Vento programs could help reduce the administrative burden. However, to end chronic homelessness in 10 years, federal agencies must strive to …
Date: March 6, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Security: Additional Actions Needed to Fully Implement Reform Legislation (open access)

Information Security: Additional Actions Needed to Fully Implement Reform Legislation

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 seek to minimize pervasive information security weaknesses that place federal operations at significant risk of disruption, tampering, fraud, and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. Increases in computer interconnectivity, especially in the use of the Internet, pose significant risks to computer systems and to the critical operations and infrastructures they support, such as telecommunications, power distribution, public health, national defense, law enforcement, and emergency services. Although federal agencies have taken steps to redesign and strengthen their information security programs, federal systems are not being adequately protected from computer-based threats, even though these systems process, store, and transmit enormous amounts of sensitive data and are indispensable to many federal agency operations."
Date: March 6, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tactical Aircraft: F-22 Delays Indicate Initial Production Rates Should Be Lower to Reduce Risks (open access)

Tactical Aircraft: F-22 Delays Indicate Initial Production Rates Should Be Lower to Reduce Risks

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The F-22 aircraft is designed to be less detectable, capable of flying at higher speeds for longer distances, and able to provide the pilot with substantially improved awareness of the surrounding situation than the F-15 it will replace. The Air Force began the F-22 development program in 1991 and plans to complete it by March 2004. In 1998, following repeated increases in the program's estimated development cost, Congress capped developmental costs at $20.443 billion. The F-22 program did not meet key schedule goals for 2001, the cost to complete planned development is likely to exceed the $21 billion reported to Congress, and the program is not far enough along in flight-testing to confirm Air Force estimates of the aircraft's performance. Despite progress in testing the aircraft's capabilities, problems and delays continue to plague the assembly and delivery of development test aircraft, and the flight-test program is less efficient than planned. Furthermore, flight-test delays make it unlikely that the planned development program can be completed within the current cost goal. On the basis of initial testing, the Air Force projects that the F-22 will meet or exceed …
Date: March 5, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nuclear Security: Lessons to Be Learned from Implementing NNSA's Security Enhancements (open access)

Nuclear Security: Lessons to Be Learned from Implementing NNSA's Security Enhancements

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to persistent security weaknesses at nuclear weapons facilities during the late 1990s, the Department of Energy (DOE) undertook several initiatives and Congress created the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) as a separate entity with DOE. DOE and NNSA have made progress in implementing many of the 75 initiatives undertaken since 1998. Lessons from these initiatives could help improve implementation of future efforts. DOE and NNSA have completed 64 percent of the initiatives, and most of the rest should be completed by December 2002. NNSA has begun a security organization and program to safeguard nuclear information and materials, but several key issues still need to be addressed to ensure the new program's effectiveness. NNSA has almost completed staffing the two new offices created to lead its security and counterintelligence activities and, with DOE, is completing a detailed review of security policies and procedures. NNSA has also begun specific activities, including training, to create a security-oriented culture in its organization."
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Regulatory Programs: Balancing Federal and State Responsibilities for Standard Setting and Implementation (open access)

Regulatory Programs: Balancing Federal and State Responsibilities for Standard Setting and Implementation

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Both federal and state governments exercise regulatory authority in many of the same policy areas. In enacting new legislation in these shared areas, Congress must provide federal protections, guarantees, or benefits while preserving an appropriate balance between federal and state regulatory authority and responsibility. State efforts can be directed toward federal or nationally shared regulatory objectives through various arrangements, each of which reflects a way to define and issue regulations or standards and assign responsibility for their implementation or enforcement. Regulatory and standard-setting mechanisms for achieving nationwide coverage include (1) fixed federal standards that preempt all state regulatory action, (2) minimum federal standards that preempt less stringent state laws but permit states to establish more stringent standards, (3) the inclusion of federal regulatory provisions in grants or other forms of assistance, (4) cooperative programs in which voluntary national standards are formulated by federal and state officials working together, and (5) widespread state adoption of voluntary standards formulated by quasi-official entities. The first two of these mechanisms involve preemption; the other three represent alternative approaches. Each represents a different combination of federal and state regulatory authority. The …
Date: March 20, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wildland Fire Management: Improved Planning Will Help Agencies Better Identify Fire-Fighting Preparedness Needs (open access)

Wildland Fire Management: Improved Planning Will Help Agencies Better Identify Fire-Fighting Preparedness Needs

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, fires on federal lands burn millions of acres and federal land management agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight them. Wildland fires also threaten communities adjacent to federal lands. The Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and the Interior, the lead federal agencies in fighting wildfires, jointly developed a long-term fire-fighting strategy in September 2000. Five federal land management agencies--the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service--are working together to accomplish the plan's objectives. GAO found that the Forest Service and Interior have not effectively determined the amount of personnel and equipment needed to respond to and suppress wildland fires. Although the agencies have acquired considerably more personnel and equipment than were available in 2000, they have not acquired all of the resources needed to implement the new strategy. Despite having received substantial additional funding, the two agencies have not yet developed performance measures. The Forest Service simply measures the amount of fire-fighting resources it will be able to devote to fire fighting at each location, regardless of risk. …
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996: Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency Has Not Yet Fully Implemented Certain Key Provisions (open access)

Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996: Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency Has Not Yet Fully Implemented Certain Key Provisions

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 seeks to maximize the collection of billions of dollars of nontax delinquent debt owed to the federal government. The act requires agencies to refer eligible debts delinquent more than 180 days to the Department of the Treasury for payment offset and to Treasury or a Treasury-designated debt collection center for cross-servicing. The Treasury Offset Program includes the offset of benefit payments, vendor payments, and tax refunds. Cross-servicing involves locating debtors, issuing demand letters, and referring debts to private collection agencies. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) has initiatives to ensure the timely referral of all delinquent debt. However, the agency's failure to make the act a priority has left key provisions of the legislation unimplemented and has severely reduced opportunities for collection. FSA lacks effective procedures and controls to identify and promptly refer eligible delinquent debts to Treasury for collection action. GAO identified several obstacles to FSA's establishment and implementation of an effective and complete debt-referral process. In the four states with the highest dollar amounts of federal debt excluded from the Treasury Offset Program, GAO reviewed FSA's use of …
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Farm Credit Administration: Oversight of Special Mission to Serve Young, Beginning, and Small Farmers Needs to Be Improved (open access)

Farm Credit Administration: Oversight of Special Mission to Serve Young, Beginning, and Small Farmers Needs to Be Improved

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Farm Credit Administration's (FCA) regulation of the Farm Credit System (System) to ensure compliance with its statutory mission to serve young, beginning, and small farmers (YBS). FCA has issued YBS-related policies and guidance, designed and implemented a YBS examination protocol, and examined institutions for compliance with YBS requirements. However, FCA has not promulgated regulations to define standards and clarify what constitutes an acceptable YBS program. GAO also found that FCA failed to follow examination procedures and document examination conclusions in the YBS program. Slightly more than half of the institutions in the System had a YBS program or service in place. Nearly one third had set numerical goals for YBS service, although most were not conducting demographic studies. Half had YBS marketing and outreach efforts in place, and most were coordinating their YBS offerings with federal, state, or other governmental or private credit sources."
Date: March 8, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Employees: OPM Data Do Not Identify if Temporary Employees Work for Extended Periods (open access)

Federal Employees: OPM Data Do Not Identify if Temporary Employees Work for Extended Periods

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the early 1990s, concerns arose that federal agencies were retaining employees in an ongoing series of temporary appointments without benefits or tenure. For fiscal years 1991 through 2000, 10 agencies accounted for 90 percent of all temporary limited employees hired governmentwide. During this period, the number of temporary limited employees hired governmentwide declined by 47 percent--from 282,135 in fiscal year 1991 to 150,395 in fiscal year 2000. Most temporary limited employees were full-time hires in white-collar jobs who received some benefits, including annual pay adjustments and premium pay. A survey done at the 10 agencies indicated that seasonal work was the primary reason for using such employees, followed by peak workloads. The office automation clerical and assistance series was the most often reported occupational series for fiscal year 2000. Recent studies suggest that federal agencies and private sector firms use temporary employees for similar reasons--often staffing flexibility. Because temporary limited employees were serving for years under temporary appointments without the benefits afforded other long-term employees, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revised its regulations in 1994 to ensure that temporary employees were "used to meet …
Date: March 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Child Support Enforcement: Clear Guidance Would Help Ensure Proper Access To Information and Use of Wage Withholding by Private Firms (open access)

Child Support Enforcement: Clear Guidance Would Help Ensure Proper Access To Information and Use of Wage Withholding by Private Firms

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To increase child support collections, Congress has considered proposals to improve the ability of private firms to gather information to help locate noncustodial parents and enforce the payment of child support. At the end of fiscal year 2000, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) indicated that $89 billion in child support was owed but unpaid--a 96-percent increase since the end of fiscal year 1996. GAO believes that this amount is understated. Thousands of private and public sector entities can collect child support. Both private firms and state agencies reported collections from about 60 percent of their cases. Twenty-two of the 24 private firms GAO reviewed reported that they relied on private information vendors--commercial firms that sell information such as addresses, telephone numbers, and social security numbers--as their primary information source, whereas about one-third of state agencies reported using this source. State agencies relied heavily on state and federal automated databases to locate noncustodial parents and their assets. Additionally, private firms and the state agencies reported calling noncustodial parents to collect child support. However, only the private firms called third parties, such as relatives and neighbors …
Date: March 26, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
FASAB: Target Audience and Qualitative Characteristics for the Consolidated Financial Report of the United States Government: Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (Exposure Draft) (open access)

FASAB: Target Audience and Qualitative Characteristics for the Consolidated Financial Report of the United States Government: Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (Exposure Draft)

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 concepts (SFFAC). The statement identifies and describes the characteristics of the target audience for the Consolidated Financial Report of the U.S. Government."
Date: March 19, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Desktop Outsourcing: Positive Results Reported, but Analyses Could Be Strengthened (open access)

Desktop Outsourcing: Positive Results Reported, but Analyses Could Be Strengthened

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed federal agencies' use of "seat management"--an information technology (IT) outsourcing alternative for distributed computing services. Under "seat management," contractor-owned desktop and other computing hardware, software, and related services are bundled and provided on the basis of a fixed price per unit. No single overarching reason emerged for agencies adoption of seat management. The most common rationales were to improve IT management, improve user support and productivity, and upgrade agency IT. All six agencies GAO reviewed reported that their seat management approaches had yielded positive results, such as better IT management and desk-help support. However, GAO could not determine whether any of the agencies were achieving expected costs benefits because they did not perform sufficient up-front analyses of their baseline and projected costs and benefits or routinely monitor all actual seat management costs and benefits. Four of the six agencies identified risks associated with seat management, such as possible cost overruns, schedule delays, or contractor performance problems. However, none of the agencies prioritized their risks, and only one identified actions to mitigate risks before implementing seat management. Agencies and seat management contractors have identified the …
Date: March 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Audit: Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2000 (open access)

Financial Audit: Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2000

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO contracted with Clifton Gunderson LLP to audit the financial statements of the Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund for fiscal years 2001 and 2000. Clifton Gunderson LLP found that (1) the financial statements were fairly presented in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, (2) the fund maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) there was no reportable noncompliance with selected provisions of the laws and regulations it tested."
Date: March 15, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Education Financial Management: Weak Internal Controls Led to Instances of Fraud and Other Improper Payments (open access)

Education Financial Management: Weak Internal Controls Led to Instances of Fraud and Other Improper Payments

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of internal control weaknesses, the Department of Education's student financial assistance programs are at high risk for fraud or erroneous payments. GAO discovered fraud in the grant and loan areas and pervasive control breakdowns and improper payments in other areas. Controls over grant and loan disbursements lacked a key edit check or follow-up process that would identify schools improperly disbursing Pell Grants. Significant internal control weaknesses over Education's third party drafts also increased the department's vulnerability. GAO found that individual Education employees could control the entire payment process for third party drafts. Education employees also circumvented a key computerized control designed to prevent duplicate payments. Education eliminated third party drafts in May 2001. Inconsistent and inadequate authorization and review processes for purchase cards, combined with a lack of monitoring, meant that improper purchases were unlikely to be detected. Inadequate control over these expenditures, combined with the inherent risk of fraud and abuse associated with purchase cards, led to fraudulent, improper, and questionable purchases totaling $686,000. Poor internal controls over computers acquired with purchase cards and third party drafts led to 241 missing personal computers and …
Date: March 28, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library