Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new rule on the regulation of exchanges and alternative trading systems (ATS). GAO noted that: (1) the rule would allow ATS to choose whether to register as national securities exchanges, or to register as broker-dealers, depending on their activities and trading volume; (2) in addition, Regulation ATS will require alternative trading systems that trade a certain volume of securities to make their best prices known to the public and allow non-subscribers access to those prices; (3) the final rule would also amend Rules 6a-1, 6a-2, and 6a-3 regarding registration as a national securities exchange; and (4) SEC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal courts and the differences that exist in ordering fines and restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines and restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for these differences."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the Customs Service's Office of Regulatory Audit is conducting compliance assessment audits in the context of the Customs Service Modernization Act, focusing on: (1) procedures established by the act; and (2) Customs' policies and procedures for conducting the audits to identify any problems that might warrant GAO's further review."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the computer security aspects of critical infrastructure protection, focusing on federal agency performance in addressing computer security issues."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the year 2000 readiness of state-administered federal programs, focusing on: (1) the reported year 2000 readiness of 10 key state-administered federal human services programs; and (2) federal activities to assess states' readiness for these 10 programs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed its review of the independent auditors' reports on the Department of Education's financial statements covering fiscal year (FY) 1998, focusing on: (1) weaknesses in the financial reporting process; (2) inadequate reconciliations of financial accounting records; and (3) inadequate controls over information systems."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed Medicare beneficiaries' use of screening and diagnostic services to prevent colorectal cancer, focusing on: (1) the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries (both aged and disabled) are using colorectal cancer screening and diagnostic services; and (2) efforts to address barriers identified as limiting use."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the U.S. programs to reduce the threats that the former Soviet Union's weapons of mass destruction pose to U.S. national security, focusing on: (1) GAO's overall observations regarding these programs' cost and impact; and (2) some questions for Congress to consider in reviewing current and future budget requests for these programs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the security of the nation's air transportation system, focusing on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) efforts to implement and improve security in two key areas: (1) air traffic control computer systems; and (2) airport passenger screening checkpoints."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed federal efforts to combat terrorism, focusing on the: (1) need to link threats to strategies and resources in federal efforts to combat terrorism; (2) need to improve federal and state intergovernmental coordination and program issues; and (3) findings of a report from the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction--better known as the Gilmore Panel."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Defense Security Service's (DSS) personnel security investigation program, focusing on: (1) how decisions to grant or deny security clearances to Department of Defense (DOD) employees and contractors are made; (2) key findings from GAO's October 1999 report; and (3) DOD's actions on GAO's recommendations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed health care costs at the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), focusing on: (1) trends in BOP health care costs from fiscal year (FY) 1990 through FY 1999; (2) BOP initiatives to contain rising medical costs; and (3) legislative and administrative options for helping to contain health care costs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the effectiveness of the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) efforts to prevent fraud by third-party billing companies that submit claims to Medicare on behalf of providers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the results of its investigation of the Behavioral Medical Systems' (BMS) Medicare billing practices, focusing on: (1) BMS and how it conducted business; (2) its improper billing of Medicare; and (3) GAO's belief that BMS violated the U.S. Code."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) management of health care assets that are operated by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), focusing on: (1) VHA's progress to date; (2) concerns regarding VHA's realignment process; and (3) the potential effects of VHA's actions on VA's capital budgeting process."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the American Battle Monuments Commission's (ABMC) financial statements audits, focusing on: (1) the legislative initiatives that were designed to improve financial management across the federal government; (2) the history of ABMC's financial accountability, focusing specifically on the World War II memorial fund; and (3) the results of GAO's most recent financial audits."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges most of the major federal department agencies face in meeting the basic expectations laid out in the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA), focusing on: (1) problems with agencies' systems that prevent them from meeting the expectations of FFMIA; (2) how agencies are able to receive a "clean" audit opinion on their financial statements even though their financial systems do not comply with FFMIA's requirements; and (3) key elements in addressing these systems problems, including the importance of sound information technology investment and control processes."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Memphis Housing Authority's (MHA) use of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds, focusing on: (1) MHA's receipt of funds from HUD's Comprehensive Grant, HOPE VI, and Public Housing Drug Elimination programs from fiscal year (FY) 1994 through fiscal 1998; and (2) a comparison of MHA's draw down of funds from these programs with that of three other public housing authorities that are similar in the number of housing units they manage and the amount of Comprehensive Grant, HOPE VI, and Public Housing Drug Elimination funds that they receive from HUD."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) report to Congress recommending that it award a contract to an alternate contractor for the development of its Alaska National Airspace System Interfacility Communications System, focusing on whether the findings were properly supported. FAA's report compared the alternate contractor's costs to the costs of two other commercial telecommunications providers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the federal government's role in helping pay for Medicaid, focusing on how: (1) the current financing scheme works; and (2) it compromises the agreement for federal/state sharing of Medicaid financing."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have been raised about the use of unreconciled activity address codes to requisition new and excess government property. The Department of Defense's (DOD) regulation 4000.25-6-M requires that all military services and DOD activities reconcile the activity codes to the Defense Automatic Addressing System Center's master file. Such reconciliations could prevent unauthorized personnel from requesting and receiving government property. GAO found, however, that many military service points failed to comply with DOD's regulation. Most indicated that they were unaware of the requirement. As a result of this, 27,879 activity codes appeared either in the agency record but not the Addressing System Center's master file or in the Center's file but not the agency record. In addition, agencies that have their own internal activity code files do not routinely reconcile to the master file. This failure resulted in 97,450 activity codes being identified as questionable. In both situations, inventory management is vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. In fact, preliminary indications are that such questionable activity codes were used to requisition millions of dollars worth of excess and new property."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on the military's inventory management activities. Army activities and contractors are assigned activity codes to requisition property in the military supply system. Some of these codes are identified as "unauthorized" to requisition and are primarily used as a ship-to address. GAO found that 15 percent of Army activity codes identified as unauthorized to requisition were inappropriately used to requisition more than $2.6 billion in new government property during the past five years. These problems exist because activity coordinators are poorly trained or inexperienced. The Army also lacks internal controls to prevent such unauthorized requisitions."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a document on establishing core competencies for project managers. This document identifies competencies in three areas (1) financial management, (2) human resources, and (3) technical."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In this statement, the Comptroller General discusses the fiscal policy challenges facing Congress and the nation. The focus of tax administration and budgeting are shifting because of current and projected budget surpluses. The Comptroller General speaks of the need for fiscal responsibility when using surplus projections to design tax and spending policies. These projections are based on a set of assumptions that may or may not hold. They are not a precise prediction of a future and should be used as a reference point when making policy decisions. Although the projected surpluses can provide an opportunity to respond to pent-up demands for additional spending or tax cuts, Congress must balance those demands with the nation's long-term economic health."