A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, health problems prevented the deployment of a significant number of Army reservists. To help correct this problem the Congress passed legislation that required reservists to undergo periodic physical and dental examinations. The National Defense Authorization Act for 2002 directed GAO to review the value and advisability of providing examinations. GAO also examined whether the Army is collecting and maintaining information on reservist health. GAO obtained expert opinion on the value of periodic examinations and visited seven Army reserve units to obtain information on the number of examinations that have been conducted."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) personal property programs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC) first interim progress report on the Department of Defense's demonstration program (MTMC pilot) to improve personal property shipments of the armed forces, focusing on MTMC's plan for evaluating the: (1) pilot results; and (2) proposed industry alternative called the Commercial-Like Activities for Superior Quality (CLASS) proposal."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE), which carries out its national security, environmental cleanup, and research missions through extensive use of contractors, faces significant costs for postretirement health and pension benefits for contractor employees. Given DOE's long history of using contractors and the rising cost of postretirement benefits, the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, asked GAO to (1) analyze DOE's estimated financial obligation for postretirement health and pension benefits for contractor employees at the end of fiscal year 2003, (2) determine how DOE evaluates its contractor postretirement health and pension benefit programs and assesses the comparative levels of benefits offered by contractors, and (3) assess how DOE's oversight of these benefits could be enhanced."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report examines the progress the District of Columbia has made with its fiscal year 2001 performance accountability report and highlights continuing challenges facing our nation's capital. The District must submit a performance accountability plan with goals for the coming fiscal year and, at the end of the fiscal year, a performance accountability report on the extent to which it achieved these goals. GAO found that the District's Performance Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2001 provided a more complete picture of its performance and made progress in complying with statutory reporting requirements by using a consistent set of goals. This allowed the District to measure and report progress toward the goals in its 2001 performance plan. Specifically, it reported information on the level of performance achieved, the titles of managers and their supervisors responsible for each goal, and described the status of certain court orders. The District has made progress over the last three years in its performance accountability reports and established positive direction for enhancements in court orders, its fiscal year 2003 performance based budgeting pilots, and performance goals and measures."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This letter summarizes the issue of overpayments to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and several other federal agencies that resulted from payroll processing errors at the National Finance Center (NFC), and the resulting actions NFC took to address the issue. In the course of testing payroll transactions as part of our audit of the IRS's fiscal years 2003 and 2002 financial statements we found that for some employees of IRS, NFC incorrectly computed agency mandatory contributions to TSP of 2 percent on the employees' base pay instead of the statutorily required 1 percent. We also found that certain employees of other agencies had also been affected, and that these excess contributions had occurred from September 1999 through September 2003. As a result, IRS and these other agencies made contributions to TSP that exceeded statutory requirements for those employees during this period."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the reporting of lobbying activities by organizations that have employees who lobby on the organizations' behalf and have the option to report their lobbying expenses under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995 or applicable Internal Revenue Code (IRC) provisions that they use for tax purposes, focusing on: (1) the differences between the LDA and IRC section 4911 and 162(e) definitions of lobbying; (2) the impact that differences in the definitions may have on registration and reporting under LDA, including information on the number of organizations using each definition and the expenses they have reported; and (3) identifying and analyzing options, including harmonizing the three definitions, that may better ensure that the public disclosure purposes of LDA are realized."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires that agencies annually review all their programs and activities and identify those that may be susceptible to significant improper payments. It further requires those agencies with improper payments exceeding $10 million to provide a report on the actions being taken to reduce those payments. This testimony updates agency progress in implementing the act based on our review of agency fiscal year 2003 Performance and Accountability Reports for the 15 agencies and 46 programs previously cited in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-11, Section 57. It required those agencies and programs to report improper payment information to the Office of Management and Budget beginning with their fiscal year 2003 budget proposals. The areas we addressed were (1) agencies that reported improper payments information and the programs and activities on which that information was based, (2) amounts of improper payments reported, (3) initiatives agencies reported taking to reduce those payments and the results of those initiatives, and (4) impediments to the prevention or reduction of improper payments reported."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1993 through 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) delivered over $150 billion in services and defense articles--including classified spare parts and unclassified items containing military technology--to countries through foreign military sales programs. GAO was asked to review whether the Army's key internal controls adequately restricted blanket orders for (1) classified spare parts and (2) unclassified items containing military technology. GAO was also asked to determine if periodic tests were conducted to validate the Army's system and its logic."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Hydra 70 rocket, focusing on the: (1) problem of early motor blow (EMB); (2) actions the military services have taken to identify and eliminate its causes; and (3) rocket's present performance."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the immediate effects of the Melissa virus and variations of it as well as its broader implications for the federal government; and (2) critical measures that should be taken to ensure that federal departments and agencies are better prepared for future viruses and other forms of attack."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorist and criminal watch list systems--sometimes referred to as watchout, lookout, target, or tip-off systems--are important tools in controlling and protecting our nation's borders. The events of September 11, 2001, and other incidents since then, have highlighted the need to share these watch lists. In light of the importance of border security, GAO was asked to identify federal databases and systems that contain watch lists, the agencies that maintain and use them in protecting our nation's borders, the kind of data they contain, whether federal agencies are sharing information from these lists with each other and with state and local governments and private organizations, the structural characteristics of those lists that are automated, and whether opportunities exist to consolidate these watch lists."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its progress in implementing its new restructuring initiative."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the compliance programs established by health care providers to reduce improper payments by Medicare, focusing on the: (1) prevalence of compliance programs among hospitals and other Medicare providers; (2) costs involved with compliance programs; and (3) effectiveness of the programs, to the extent that could be measured."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) domestic banking program on military bases, focusing on whether: (1) domestic military bases have followed DOD procedures to provide for open solicitations in obtaining banking services; (2) on-base financial institutions face competition for banking services from other financial institutions and charge fees competitive with other banks; and (3) opportunities exist for DOD and military bases to generate additional revenues from banking services on military bases and how this might affect banking services and customers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Potentially dangerous sealed sources containing greater-than-Class-C radioactive material pose a threat to national security because terrorists could use them to make "dirty bombs." Public Law 99-240 requires the Department of Energy (DOE) provide a facility for disposing of unwanted sources. Because DOE has no disposal facility for these sources, its Off-Site Source Recovery Project is recovering and temporarily storing them at Los Alamos, New Mexico. GAO was asked to determine (1) the number of unwanted sealed sources that DOE plans to recover through 2010 and the estimated cost, (2) the status of recovery efforts and any problems that DOE may face, and (3) the status of DOE's efforts to provide a disposal facility for these sealed sources"

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was, for the second consecutive year, able to prepare financial statements that received an unqualified opinion. However, this achievement once again came through the use of substantial, costly, and time-consuming processes to compensate for serious systems and control deficiencies. IRS continues to make progress in its performance management system by using a strategic planning and budgeting process to reconcile competing priorities and initiatives with available resources. In the area of computer security, IRS corrected or mitigated many of the previously reported weaknesses, including those affecting its electronic filing systems. It also is implementing a computer security program that should help manage its risks in this area. Business Systems Modernization is IRS' ongoing program to leverage information technology and is integral to IRS achieving its customer-focused vision. To date, IRS has made progress in establishing the systems infrastructure, delivering system applications, and developing the management controls and capabilities necessary to effectively acquire and deploy modernized systems."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Nations Secretariat's efforts to reform its procurement process, focusing on: (1) the types of procurement problems that the U.N. High Level Expert Group on Procurement and U.N. audit and inspection organizations found; (2) progress on the implementation of the Expert Group's recommendations and other reforms to correct procurement-related problems; and (3) whether these actions have succeeded in achieving the objectives of procurement reform."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in transforming health care, focusing on: (1) VA's transformation progress to date; (2) challenges that remain to be confronted; and (3) the implications for VA's fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) year 2000 readiness, focusing on: (1) VA's ability to deliver benefits and health care services through the turn of the century; and (2) the readiness of automated systems that support such delivery, the compliance status of biomedical equipment used in patient care, and the year 2000 readiness of the pharmaceutical and medical-surgical manufacturers upon which VA relies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "An accurate decennial census relies on finding and counting people--only once--in the right place and collecting complete and correct information. GAO reviewed the Department of Commerce's U.S. Census Bureau's (Bureau) plans to (1) improve the census's accuracy--or coverage--with its coverage follow-up operation, (2) assess the accuracy of the census through its census coverage measurement program, and (3) evaluate these efforts after 2010. GAO reviewed documentation and interviewed Bureau officials about the Bureau's coverage follow-up and measurement plans. GAO compared plans for measuring coverage in 2000 and 2010 and interviewed 15 experts about changes to the plans."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) estimated the 2010 Census would cost $11.5 billion, including $3 billion on automation and technology. At a March hearing, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) stated that the Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) program was likely to incur significant cost overruns and announced a redesign effort. At that time, GAO designated the 2010 Decennial Census as high risk, citing long-standing concerns in managing information technology (IT) investments and uncertain costs and operations. This testimony is based on past work and work nearing completion, including GAO's observation of the address canvassing dress rehearsal. For IT acquisitions, GAO analyzed system documentation, including deliverables, cost estimates, other acquisitions-related documents, and interviewed Bureau officials and contractors. This testimony describes the implications of redesign for (1) dress rehearsal and decennial operations, (2) IT acquisitions management, and (3) Decennial Census costs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony is based on GAO's review of schedules and financial reports for the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) project and related records maintained by AOC and its construction management contractor, Gilbane Building Company; GAO's observations on the progress of work at the CVC construction site; and GAO's discussions with the CVC team (Architect of the Capitol (AOC) and its major CVC contractors) and AOC's Chief Fire Marshal. GAO also reviewed AOC's construction management contractor's periodic schedule assessments, proposed change order log, and weekly reports on construction progress. In addition, GAO reviewed the contract modifications made to date."