A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies across the federal government are embarking on large-scale organizational transformations to address 21st century challenges. One proposed approach to address systemic federal governance and management challenges involves the creation of a senior-level position--a chief operating officer (COO)/chief management officer (CMO)--in selected federal agencies to help elevate, integrate, and institutionalize responsibility for key management functions and business transformation efforts. GAO was asked to develop criteria and strategies for establishing and implementing COO/CMO positions in federal agencies. To do so, GAO (1) gathered information on the experiences and views of officials at four organizations with COO/CMO-type positions and (2) convened a forum to gather insights from individuals with experience in business transformation."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes AIMD-00-21.2.8, Travel System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, December 1999. GAO published a functional requirements document to assist: (1) agencies in implementing and monitoring their travel systems; and (2) management and auditors in reviewing their travel systems to determine if they substantially comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Floods have been, and continue to be, the most destructive natural hazard in terms of economic loss to the nation. The National Flood Insurance Program is a key component of the federal government's efforts to minimize the damage and financial impact of floods. The program identifies flood-prone areas of the country, makes flood insurance available in the nearly 20,000 communities that participate in the program, and encourages flood-plain management efforts. Since its inception in 1969, the National Flood Insurance has provided $12 billion in insurance claims to owners of flood-damaged properties, and its building standards are estimated to save $1 billion annually. The program has been managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but along with other activities of the agency, it was recently placed into the Department of Homeland Security. GAO has issued a number of reports on the flood insurance program and was asked to discuss the current challenges to the widespread success of the program."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes GAO-04-218G, Acquisition/Financial Systems Interface Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (Exposure Draft), December 2003. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA) requires that agencies implement and maintain financial management systems that substantially comply with federal financial management system requirements. These requirements are described in detail in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) guidance and in the Federal Financial Management System Requirements series issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP). JFMIP intends for its requirements series to promote understanding of key financial management systems concepts and requirements, to provide a framework for establishing integrated financial management systems that support program and financial managers, and to describe specific requirements of financial management systems."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) provides about 45 percent of all electric power consumed in the Pacific Northwest--Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The power that BPA markets and distributes is generated in large part at hydroelectric projects including dams in the Federal Columbia River Power System. BPA also owns and operates about 75 percent of the region's services. Under the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act of 1980, BPA is responsible for ensuring an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply for the Pacific Northwest. To do so, BPA balances the needs of its customers against the highly variable water resources available for generating electricity. In maintaining this balance, BPA sometimes buys and sells or otherwise exchanges power with utilities with entities within and outside the Pacific Northwest. In addition to providing power, BPA is required under the 1980 act, various other laws, treaties and court cases, to "protect, mitigate, and enhance" fish and wildlife resources. Recently, BPA has witnessed a substantial deterioration in its financial condition. For example, BPA's cash reserves of $811 million at the end of fiscal year 2000 had fallen $188 million …

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Financial Audit Manual (FAM), published in July 2001, provides guidance for financial audits done by the Inspector General community, GAO, and their contractors. The FAM is a key part in enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources. GAO and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) are committed to keeping the FAM current. With this goal in mind, a GAO/PCIE task force prepared an exposure draft to add new sections and to update existing sections of volume II of the FAM."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Electricity is central to the national economy and the daily lives of many Americans, powering homes, businesses, and industries. Today, an extensive system consisting of more than 150,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines works to provide reliable electricity service and transport electricity from power plants to consumers. Federal and state entities share responsibility for regulating the electricity system. On the federal level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates interstate transmission of electricity and wholesale rates, among other regulatory activities. State public utility commissions are generally responsible for regulating retail electricity sales and, in some cases, planning for new power plants and transmission lines. However, as studies have shown, growth in electricity demand has strained the nation's transmission system, resulting in less flexibility to respond to system problems and an increased risk of potential blackouts. These issues have led some to suggest that new lines or other investments in the transmission system may be required to increase capacity and accommodate growing electricity demand. Several companies have recently introduced proposals to build new high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission lines. Some of these proposed lines would follow active transportation rights of …

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by GAO-03-673G, Government Auditing Standards: 2003 Revision, June 2003. GAO presented a guide on revised government auditing standards to audit officials and others interested in government auditing standards. The standards require auditors to (1) not perform management functions or make management decisions and (2) not audit their own work or provide nonaudit services in situations in which the amounts or services involved are significant/material to the subject matter of the audit."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by GAO-01-911G, Grant Financial System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, September 2001. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requires that agencies implement and maintain financial management systems that substantially comply with federal financial management systems requirements. These system requirements are spelled out by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) and the Office of Management and Budget. This checklist reflects JFMIP's revised requirements for grant financial systems to help (1) agencies in implementing and monitoring their grant financial systems and (2) managers and auditors in reviewing agency grant financial systems to determine if they substantially comply with the act."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes AIMD-00-83, Executive Guide: Maximizing the Success of Chief Information Officers (Exposure Draft), March 2000. This guide is intended to assist federal agencies in maximizing the success of chief information officers (CIO). Principles and practices gleaned from the case studies presented in this guide offer concrete suggestions on what agency executives can do to ensure the effectiveness of their CIO organizations. The specific key conditions and strategies described in this guide can be used as suggestions for federal CIOs to apply or adapt to their environments, where appropriate."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) of 2007 amended the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 by doubling the frequency of lobbyists' reporting and increasing criminal and civil penalties. This is GAO's second report in response to the Act's requirement for GAO to annually (1) determine the extent to which lobbyists can demonstrate compliance with the Act by providing support for information on their registrations and reports, (2) describe challenges identified by lobbyists to complying with the Act, and (3) describe the resources and authorities available to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia's efforts to enforce the Act. For this report, GAO placed increased emphasis on written documentation to support disclosure reports. GAO reviewed a random sample of 100 lobbyist disclosure reports filed during the first three quarters of calendar year 2008. GAO also selected a random sample of 100 reports of federal political contributions, filed for the first time, for mid-calendar-year 2008. This methodology allowed GAO to generalize the sample results to the populations of 40,169 lobbying activity disclosure reports and 6,048 reports with contributions filed. GAO met with lobbyists regarding …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Statement is the federal government's main document for communicating with more than 140 million workers about their Social Security benefits. By law, the statement must show an individual's annual earnings, payments into Social Security and Medicare, and projected benefits. The Social Security Administration also uses the statement to explain the various types of Social Security benefits and to encourage greater financial planning for retirement. GAO conducted a review to examine (1) how well recipients understand the current statement, (2) how the Social Security Administration is evaluating the statement's understandability, and (3) the promising practices used by private sector companies and other industrial countries. GAO's information was obtained from its national survey and focus groups of statement recipients, a firm that evaluates benefit statements, officials from three other countries (Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), and other experts from the private sector."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On April 6, 2006, we testified before Congress on the Department of Defense's (DOD) space acquisitions. In fiscal year 2007, DOD expects to spend nearly $7 billion to acquire space-based capabilities to support current military and other government operations as well as to enable DOD to transform the way it collects and disseminates information, gathers data on its adversaries, and attacks targets. Despite its growing investment in space, however, DOD's space system acquisitions have experienced problems over the past several decades that have driven up costs by hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars; stretched schedules by years; and increased performance risks. In some cases, capabilities have not been delivered to the warfighter after decades of development. Within this context, Congress requested that we provide additional comments regarding the need for better program management, space acquisition policy, and DOD's Space Radar and Transformational Satellite Communications System acquisitions."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Act requires small businesses to have the maximum practicable opportunity to participate in the performance of federal government contracts. Congress directed the President to set a governmentwide goal of at least 23 percent of the total dollar value of the federal government's prime contract awards to be awarded to small businesses each fiscal year. The small Business Administration's (SBA) Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs) work with federal agencies and procuring activities by reviewing proposed acquisitions to determine whether they can be set aside for small businesses. GAO found that the number of PCR-recommended small businesses set-asides has declined by almost one-half since fiscal year 1991. Overall, contracting officers accepted 76 percent of the set-aside recommendations. Of the 24 percent rejected, SBA did not pursue 85 percent. Of the 15 percent appealed, 26 percent were successful. SBA officials attributed the decline to several factors, including (1) downsizing the number of PCRs; (2) assigning other duties to PCRs, such as requiring some PCRs to be Commercial Marketing Representatives, further reducing available PCR resources; and (3) fewer set-aside opportunities due to increasing size and individual federal procurements. SBA officials …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tasked the Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) to purchase temporary classrooms for Mississippi schools. To accomplish its task, the Corps placed a $39.5 million order with Akima Site Operations for the purchase and delivery of 450 such classrooms. GAO received an allegation on its Fraud Hotline that the Corps paid inflated prices for the classrooms, and in response, we reviewed the facts and circumstances related to the Corps' issuance of the order."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To conduct operations in littorals--shallow coastal waters--the Navy plans to build a new class of surface warship: the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). LCS is being designed to accomplish its missions through systems operating at a distance from the ship, such as helicopters and unmanned vehicles, and that will be contained in interchangeable mission packages. The Navy is using an accelerated approach to buy the LCS, building the ships in "flights." Flight 0, consisting of four ships, will provide limited capability and test the LCS concept. The schedule allows 12 months between the delivery of the first Flight 0 ship and the start of detailed design and construction for Flight 1 ships. Estimated procurement cost of the Flight 0 ships is $1.5 billion. The Congress directed GAO to review the LCS program. This report assesses the analytical basis of LCS requirements; the Navy's progress in defining the concept of operations; the technical maturity of the mission packages; and the basis of recurring costs for LCS."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report formally transmits the briefing in response to section 2228(e) of title 10 of the United States Code. The statute requires the Comptroller General to provide an analysis of the Department of Defense's budget submission for corrosion prevention and control, as well as an analysis of the corrosion report accompanying defense budget materials, and provide the results to the congressional defense committees within 60 days after submission of the Department of Defense budget. On May 26, 2009, we provided the briefing to staff Congressional committees to satisfy the mandate and 60-day reporting requirement."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This is one in a series or reports designed to help federal agencies improve or maintain effective internal control, financial management systems, and financial reporting. GAO discusses the status of the 13 remaining standards in Title 2, "Accounting," of the GAO Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies in light of the most recent compendium of Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) standards and guidance. GAO either (1) reprinted the standards that remain in effect, along with any updated citations to relevant guidance, or (2) provided the citation of current guidance replacing that standard."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by GAO-08-585G, Financial Audit Manual: Volume 1, July 2008. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) maintain the GAO/PCIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM). The FAM provides guidance for performing financial statement audits of federal entities. The FAM is a key tool for enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "With health care spending increasing in the United States, you enacted legislation effective in 2004 establishing tax advantaged health savings accounts (HSA) to be coupled with high-deductible health insurance plans. HSA-eligible high-deductible health plans typically have lower premiums than traditional health plans and HSAs allow account holders to accumulate tax-free savings to pay for medical expenses. The novel structure of HSA-eligible plans coupled with HSAs has raised questions about who selects them and how they use the accounts. Proponents contend that the low premiums of HSA-eligible plans and the tax-free savings potential of HSAs appeal to many consumers, while the high deductibles encourage them to be more astute health care consumers. However, some critics are concerned that HSA-eligible plans may attract enrollees who seek lower premiums but lack the resources to contribute to an HSA, and wealthy enrollees who may seek to use the HSA primarily to accumulate tax-advantaged savings rather than pay for medical expenses. In a 2006 report, GAO described individuals' early experiences with HSA-eligible plans and HSAs and certain characteristics of HSA account holders. You asked us to update certain information from that report with …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S.-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) are designed to help improve stability in Afghanistan and Iraq by increasing the host nation's capacity to govern; enhancing economic viability; and strengthening local governments' ability to deliver public services, such as security and health care. PRTs are a means of coordinating interagency diplomatic, economic, reconstruction, and counterinsurgency efforts among various U.S. agencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. PRTs are intended to be interim structures; after a PRT has achieved its goal of improving stability, it may be dismantled to allow traditional development efforts to occur. In Afghanistan, the first PRTs were created in 2002 with the mission of facilitating security and reconstruction by helping the central government extend its authority to the provinces. Since then, PRTs have expanded their purpose to include strengthening local governance and community development. In Iraq, PRTs were initiated in 2005 with the mission to increase the capacity of provincial and local governments to govern effectively and, for newer embedded PRTs (ePRT), to support moderates and assist in the military's counterinsurgency efforts. To accomplish their missions, PRTs engage in and fund a variety of activities, such as developing the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress recently increased active military personnel levels for the Army and the Marine Corps. The Secretary of Defense has undertaken initiatives to use military personnel more efficiently such as rebalancing high-demand skills between active and reserve components. In view of concerns about active personnel, GAO reviewed the ways in which the Department of Defense (DOD) determines personnel requirements and is managing initiatives to assign a greater proportion of active personnel to warfigthing duties. GAO assessed the extent to which the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) (1) has conducted a data-based analysis of active military personnel needed to implement the national defense strategy and (2) has a plan for making more efficient use of active military personnel and evaluating the plan's results."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, run by the University of California, is building the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to simulate, in a laboratory setting, the thermonuclear conditions created in nuclear explosion. The facility will allow scientists to evaluate the behavior of nuclear weapons without explosive testing. This report reviews (1) the role of NIF in the Stockpile Stewardship Program; (2) the relationship of NIF to other Stockpile Stewardship Program elements; (3) the impact of delays in constructing NIF on the Stockpile Stewardship Program; (4) funds spent to date on the project so far; and (5) whether the new baseline has clear goals, adequate and sustainable funding, and achievable milestones. GAO found that NIF is expected to contribute to DOE's Stockpile Stewardship by attracting new scientists, supporting the stockpile's refurbishment, and supporting research to improve the understanding of weapons science. DOE has yet to certify that the completion of NIF will not harm the balance of the Stockpile Stewardship Program. Future delays in constructing NIF may adversely affect DOE's ability to conduct weapons science research. DOE has spent $1.3 billion on the NIF project through fiscal year 2000, plus …

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publications has been superseded by GAO-01-1008G, Internal Control Management and Evaluation Tool, August 2001. The Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982 required that GAO issue standards for internal control in the federal government, which it did in 1983. However, changes in information technology, human capital management issues, and financial management-related legislation prompted GAO to revise the standard and issue another internal control guide. (See GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1, November 1999.) These standards provide the overall framework for establishing and maintaining internal control and for identifying and addressing major performance challenges and areas at greatest risk for fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. GAO is issuing this management and evaluation tool, which is based on GAO's internal control guide, to help agencies maintain or implement effective internal control and, when needed, to determine what, where, and how improvements can be implemented. Although this tool is not required to be used, it is intended to provide a systematic, organized, and structured approach to assessing the internal control structure."