A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. military assistance programs provided $74 billion in military equipment, services, and training to countries in the Middle East from fiscal years 1991 through 2000. The Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Financing programs account for about 96 percent of the value of military items in the U.S. delivered to the region. The U.S. weapon systems delivered include F-16 and F/A-18 fighter aircraft; Apache and Cobra helicopters; M1A1 Tanks; and AMRAAM, ATACMS, and Stinger missiles. Conditions on the use of U.S. military equipment, services, and training delivered to countries in the Middle East, with few exceptions, are limited to standard conditions that the U.S. government places on all transfers of U.S. military items. By law, the U.S. may provide military items to foreign governments only for internal security, legitimate self-defense, participation in collective agreements that are consistent with the United Nations' charter, or civic action."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Management of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) e-commerce program has been fragmented, and implementation of e-commerce initiatives has varied at different business units. Overall, USPS' performance in this area has fallen short of expectations. Last year, the Postmaster General announced a sweeping management restructuring that changed both the reporting structure and program managers. USPS also revised its procedures for approving and implementing new Internet initiatives, including e-commerce. However, concerns persist about whether USPS' e-commerce initiatives are being cross-subsidized by other postal products and services. USPS managers contend that e-commerce products and services must cover their incremental costs. GAO found that this goal has not been met and it is unclear when it might be achieved. Without accurate, complete, and consistent financial information, USPS cannot assess its progress toward its financial performance goals for e-commerce. USPS also lacks clear and comprehensive policies and procedures for reporting direct and indirect revenues and costs for e-commerce and other new products and services. As a result, reporting inconsistencies are likely to continue. In contrast, USPS has reportedly developed privacy policies and practices for its e-commerce customers that exceed those required …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Changes in the character and the conduct of warfighting and in the range and the nature of missions call for an Army force that is more responsive and dominant across the full spectrum of operations and requires much less in-theater logistics support. To meet these new demands, the Army is using the latest technology to develop a series of weapon systems that will be lighter than today's heavy force systems but just as lethal and survivable. The Army's transformation effort will face several challenges. First, the transformation will place additional funding demands on the defense budget. Second, the Army's plans for the transformation assume that weapons systems and equipment can be developed and acquired much faster than in the past. Third, the Army needs to update current acquisition plans to reflect transformation priorities and schedules. The success of this effort depends on the Army's ability to manage transformation acquisitions as leading commercial firms do. By following best practices used in the commercial sector, the Army can better match its needs with its resources."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) manages the nation's nuclear weapons production complex, cleans up the environmental legacy from the production of nuclear weapons, and conducts research and development into both energy and basic science. DOE launched several reforms in the 1990s to realign its organizational structure, reduce its workforce, strengthen contracting procedures by competitive awards practices, streamline oversight of activities, and delegate some responsibilities to the private sector. Despite these reforms, GAO found that management weaknesses persist because DOE's reforms were piecemeal solutions whose effect has been muted by three impediments to fundamental improvement: the department's diverse missions, dysfunctional organizational structure, and weak control of accountability. Management weaknesses and performance problems will likely continue unless DOE addresses these impediments in a comprehensive fashion."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assists nearly 30,000 privately owned and operated multifamily properties to provide affordable housing for low and moderate income persons. HUD is responsible for ensuring that the owners of HUD-assisted properties provide housing that is decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair. HUD began its Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) in 1998 to inspect multifamily properties, and rate their condition. This report addresses whether: (1) HUD field offices are complying with the procedures HUD established to ensure that the physical deficiencies at these properties are corrected, (2) all physical deficiencies have been corrected at properties that HUD classified as repaired, and (3) HUD staff and property owners are meeting the Department's timeliness goals and requirements for addressing physical deficiencies. GAO found that HUD's field offices often did not follow the Department's procedures for ensuring that property owners are correcting all physical deficiencies. GAO visited properties that HUD said had been repaired and found that about half of them had not been corrected. Furthermore, HUD's staff and property owners are not meeting timeliness goals and requirements for addressing physical deficiencies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Export Enhancement Act of 1992 created the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee to coordinate the delivery of federal export promotion services and to eliminate the areas of overlap and duplication among federal export promotion programs. The Export Enhancement Act of 1999 reiterated that eliminating duplication was a primary objective. In 1993, Congress recommended that three agencies co-locate their staffs at a domestic network of 19 "one-stop shops" called U.S. Export Assistance Centers. These centers were to provide coordinated export training, as well as trade leads, export finance, and counseling to U.S. firms interested in becoming exporters. GAO found that the Department of Commerce did not coordinate closely with the Small Business Administration in introducing its export training program. As a result, Commerce and the SBA provide separate and duplicative training programs for potential small business exporters. Neither Commerce nor SBA systematically collect outcome data for their export training programs. Instead, both agencies track the number of clients trained and Commerce identifies export successes for its clients overall, but not for training participants. Staff at Commerce and SBA do not systematically follow up with training participants to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audited the financial statement for the Senate Stationary Room Revolving Fund for fiscal year 2000. GAO found that (1) the statement is presented fairly in all material respects; (2) although internal control should be improved, the Stationary Room had effective internal controls over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations; and (3) there was no reportable noncompliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations GAO tested."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although physicians and other health care providers acknowledge that they can buy drugs for prices lower than Medicare payments, they contend that they need drug payments in excess of their actual costs to compensate for inadequate or nonexistent Medicare payments for administrating the drugs. Physicians are able to obtain Medicare-covered drugs at prices significantly below current Medicare payments, which are set at 95 percent of average wholesale prices (AWP). The prices paid by wholesalers and group purchasing organizations that would be generally available to physicians were considerably less than AWPs used to establish the Medicare payment for these drugs. The difference between these prices and AWP for physician-administered drugs in GAO's sample varied by drug. For most physician-administered drugs, the average discount from AWP ranged from 13 percent to 34 percent; two physician-administered drugs had discounts of 65 percent and 86 percent. Other suppliers are also able to buy drugs at prices that are considerably less than the AWP used to establish the applicable Medicare payment. Pharmacy suppliers were predominant billers for 10 of the high-expenditure and high-volume Medicare-covered drugs GAO analyzed. These suppliers generally provide …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Despite the recent success of casino gaming and other business ventures undertaken by some Native Americans and Alaska Natives, unemployment and poverty remain widespread in these communities. Many federal programs are available to help Native Americans with economic development, and some tribes are using these programs. Although agencies reported that their programs helped to create and retain jobs, little is known about the effectiveness of these programs. The preparation of performance plans and reports, the designation of agency points of contact, and the establishment of a single office to coordinate federal programs relating to Indian economic development could improve Native Americans' access to federal programs and provide federal decisionmakers with valuable performance information."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO assessed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) performance in the following five key tax filing season activities: (1) processing individual tax returns and refunds, (2) increasing the extent to which individual income tax returns are filed electronically, (3) answering telephone calls and providing quality telephone service, (4) providing accurate and timely face-to-face assistance at its Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC), and (5) providing services via the Internet. GAO found that IRS' performance during the 2001 filing season varied. Although there was less information available on which to base a judgement than in past filing seasons, IRS' processing of 130 million individual income tax returns and 94 million refunds in 2001 went smoothly. IRS addressed problems quickly, with relatively minor impact on taxpayers. About 31 percent of all individual income tax returns were filed electronically in 2001--an increase of 13.7 percent compared to 2000. That rate of increase was below IRS' goal of 20 percent and the lowest percentage since 1996. IRS has identified several impediments, but it lacks enough information to determine why about 40 million individual income tax returns were prepared on computers but filed on …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The number of contracts under Medicare's managed care program--Medicare+Choice (M+C)--fell from 340 to 180 between 1998 and 2001. The reduction reflected decisions by some managed care organizations (MCOs) to terminate selected contracts or to discontinue service in some covered areas. Although nearly all MCOs renewed at least some of their Medicare contracts over this period, many reduced the geographic areas served. As a result, 1.6 million beneficiaries had to switch MCOs or return to Medicare's traditional fee-for-service program. Other MCOs plan either to terminate or reduce their participation in M+C at the end of 2001. Concerned about MCO withdrawals, Congress sought to make participation in the program more attractive. As a result of the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, aggregate Medicare+Choice payments in 2001 are estimated to have increased by $1 billion. The act permitted three basic uses for the higher payment. MCOs could (1) improve their health plans' benefit packages, (2) set aside money for future years in a benefit stabilization fund, or (3) stabilize or enhance beneficiary access to providers. Most MCOs reported that additional money would be used to stabilize or …

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Limited quantitative data exists on the extent to which American industry has sought to use pollution prevention methods to reduce pollutants discharged from its facilities. This shortcoming has inhibited the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to monitor and encourage companies' use of pollution prevention measures. Whether to undertake pollution prevention is typically a business decision that is influenced largely by a company's judgment as to whether an investment in pollution prevention will benefit it financially. One notable exception is the design of environmental regulations, some of which have had the unintended consequence of discouraging pollution prevention practices. In some cases, EPA may have no means to address them. The design of some regulations may be constrained by their governing statutes. In other cases, EPA may be better able to take the national goal of promoting pollution prevention into consideration in developing its regulatory proposals. The Pollution Prevention Act requires EPA to review its regulatory proposals to determine their effects on source reduction. However, the agency has not systematically tracked the implementation of this provision, and therefore does not know the extent to which source reduction has …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration (SSA) needs to identify strengths and weaknesses within its agencywide operational and managerial capabilities to enable the delivery of high-quality customer service in the face of increases in both workloads and in the number of retirements from its experienced workforce. Evaluating SSA's management of information technology (IT) is critical to assess whether the agency is adequately addressing these capabilities. This report reviews SSA's IT policies, procedures, and practices in the following five areas: investment management, enterprise architecture, software acquisition and development, information security, and human capital. GAO found that SSA had many important IT management policies and procedures in place in each of these five key areas but did not always implement them consistently. In some areas, SSA had not established key policies, procedures, or practices essential to ensure that its IT was effectively managed. GAO found weaknesses in all of the five key areas of IT management--particularly in investment management and human capital management."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "All military services routinely use cannibalization to maintain aircraft. The adverse effects of cannibalizations include (1) higher maintenance costs due to increased mechanics' workloads, (2) morale and personnel retention problems, and (3) taking expensive aircraft out of service for long periods of time. The services have many reasons for cannibalizing aircraft and strong incentives for continuing to do so. In the broadest sense, cannibalizations are done because of pressures to meet readiness and operational needs and because of shortcomings in the supply system. Although the services have undertaken steps to address logistics shortfalls, few specific strategies have been developed to reduce cannibalizations and the associated maintenance hours."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although the current economic situation and the challenges of combating terrorism will cause federal deficits in the short term, the budget may again return to surpluses. Surpluses will be needed in the future to prepare for the retirement and health care needs of the baby boom era. GAO studied five nations--Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom-- whose recent experiences with debt management in times of surpluses might be relevant to the United States. The countries GAO studied experienced both budget surpluses and deficits from 1988 through 2000. Recent budget surpluses contributed to falling public debt levels in absolute terms and as a share of the economy in these countries. Whether government debt is increasing or decreasing, debt managers' objectives are (1) to ensure that the government's financing needs are met, (2) to minimize the government's cost of financing, (3) to promote efficient markets, and (4) to keep risk at an acceptable level. However, tradeoffs among these objectives are not always compatible. During budget deficits, a primary consideration is making government securities more attractive to potential investors. On the other hand, periods of surpluses …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The administration's energy policy reflects renewed interest in expanding nuclear power as a source of electricity. However, the nation lacks a facility to permanently dispose of spent fuel from commercial power plants. The Department of Energy (DOE) has been studying Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a possible repository for these highly radioactive wastes. GAO believes that it may be premature for the Secretary of Energy to recommend Yucca Mountain as a suitable site. Once the President considers the site qualified for a license application and recommends the site to Congress, the Nuclear Waste Policy act requires DOE to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) within five to eight months. DOE will be unable to submit an acceptable application to NRC within the statutory time frames for several years because of unresolved technical issues. DOE is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010, and it does not have a reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository can be opened."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed Mexican commercial trucks to travel throughout the United States. Because of concerns about the safety of these vehicles, the United States has limited Mexican truck operations to commercial zones near the border. Relatively few Mexican carriers are expected to operate beyond these commercial zones once the United States fully opens its highways to Mexican carriers. Specific regulatory and economic factors that may limit the number of Mexican carriers operating beyond the commercial zones include (1) the lack of established business relationships beyond the U.S. commercial zones that permit drivers to return to Mexico carrying cargo, (2) difficulties obtaining competitively priced insurance, (3) congestion and delays in crossing the U.S.-Mexico border that make long-haul operations less profitable, and (4) high registration fees. Over time, improvements in trucking and border operations may increase the number of Mexican commercial vehicles traveling beyond the commercial zones. GAO found that the Department of Transportation (DOT) lacks a fully developed or approved plan to ensure that Mexican-domiciled carriers comply with U.S. safety standards. DOT has not secured permanent space at any of the 25 …