Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Telecommuting, or telework--meaning work that is performed at an employee's home or at a work location other than a traditional office--has gained widespread attention over the past decade in both the public and private sectors, offering a variety of potential benefits to employers, employees, and society. On July 29, 2005, we briefed Congress on the results of our review of telework methodologies at the Departments of Commerce (DOC), Justice (DOJ), State, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This report transmits the information provided during that briefing. Specifically, Congress had asked us to provide information on and analysis of the methodology that each of the five agencies used to define employees eligible to telecommute, the methods each agency used to make telecommuting opportunities available to eligible employees and what those opportunities are, and how each agency defines and measures telecommuting participation rates."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) submitted to the Congress on July 29, 2005 a report entitled Defense Commercial Communications Satellite Services Procurement Process. In response to direction from the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, we reviewed DOD's report to determine the extent to which it addressed the seven recommendations contained in our December 2003 report on how DOD procures fixed commercial satellite bandwidth services. On September 2, 2005, we briefed the Committee on the results of our review. This letter summarizes and transmits that briefing."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal government purchases of goods and services have grown to more than $300 billion annually. The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) is the only governmentwide system for obtaining information on how these funds are being spent. The FPDS-NG was intended to improve the prior FPDS system in several ways, including providing more timely and accurate data; enabling users to generate their own reports; and providing easier user access to data. The system was developed by Global Computer Enterprises, Inc., (GCE) under contract with the General Services Administration (GSA). The FPDS-NG is currently in a transition period, which is scheduled to end by October 2005. We initiated a review to assess the extent to which FPDS-NG has demonstrated the intended improvements, and to determine whether the FPDS-NG is currently capable of collecting and reporting on interagency contracting data. We reviewed documents related to FPDS-NG; held discussions with officials from GSA, GCE, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and with private sector and government users. We also made numerous attempts to use the system to generate reports."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's past work and the work of others has shown that challenges processing voter registration applications and maintaining voter registration lists can result in individuals arriving at polls on Election Day to find they were not listed as registered. GAO surveyed local election officials in 14 jurisdictions in 7 states (AZ, CA, MI, NY, TX, VA, and WI) to obtain their views on managing voter registration for the 2004 election. GAO selected the 7 states considering characteristics relevant to voter registration, such as whether a statewide voter registration list existed prior to the enactment of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. Locations were selected within each state to represent one small and one large election jurisdiction. This report discusses election officials' characterization of (1) challenges receiving voter registration applications, including checking them for completeness; (2) removing voters' names from voter registration lists and ensuring that names were not inadvertently removed; and (3) implementing HAVA's provisional voting and identification requirements. HAVA, in part, requires that states offer provisional ballots to voters not listed as registered who declare eligibility and first-time voters who registered by mail …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government must have the capacity to plan more strategically, react more expeditiously, and focus on achieving results. Critical to the success of this transformation are the federal government's people--its human capital. Yet, in many cases the federal government has not transformed how it classifies, compensates, develops, and motivates its employees to achieve maximum results within available resources and existing authorities. A key question is how to update the federal government's compensation system to be market-based and more performance-oriented. To further the discussion of federal pay reform, GAO partnered with key human capital stakeholders to convene a symposium in March 2005 to discuss public, private, and nonprofit organizations' successes and challenges in designing and managing market-based and more performance-oriented pay systems. This testimony presents the strategies that organizations considered in designing and managing market-based and more performance-oriented pay systems and describes how they are implementing them."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is a block grant program with recent annual funding of about $2 billion that provides fuel payment assistance and payments for home energy efficiency improvements for low-income households. As energy prices continue to rise, this assistance is growing more important to mitigate the impact of higher prices on low-income households. HHS awards LIHEAP funds by formula to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, federally or state-recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and territories. These grantees then provide energy assistance payments to low-income households. Within LIHEAP, the Residential Energy Assistance Challenge Option (REACH) program funds demonstration projects to help low-income families reduce their energy usage. GAO was asked to provide information on (1) HHS's oversight of LIHEAP payments made by grantees and (2) GAO's 2001 review of LIHEAP's REACH program."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audits and investigates the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) operations to (1) promote economy and efficiency and detect and prevent fraud and abuse and (2) recommend actions for improvement. TIGTA was established by the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (IRS Reform Act), which amended the Inspector General Act of 1978 (IG Act), to include an independent inspector general (IG) to provide oversight of IRS's activities, programs, and offices. This report responds to a Congressional request that we review the activities of TIGTA. We are providing information regarding (1) TIGTA's budget and staffing levels; (2) TIGTA's audit and investigative coverage of IRS, including oversight of IRS's offices and identified weaknesses in IRS's operations, and audit coverage of specific requirements of the IRS Reform Act; (3) TIGTA's audit and investigative accomplishments; (4) the quality assurance program, including the results of peer reviews; and (5) the audit follow-up process to track IRS's implementation of TIGTA's audit recommendations."

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