A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) continued to make progress in addressing information security control weaknesses and improving its internal control over financial reporting; however, weaknesses remain that could affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data. During fiscal year 2013, IRS management devoted attention and resources to addressing information security controls, and resolved a number of the information security control deficiencies that were previously reported by GAO. However, significant risks remained. Specifically, the agency had not always (1) installed appropriate patches on all databases and servers to protect against known vulnerabilities, (2) sufficiently monitored database and mainframe controls, or (3) appropriately restricted access to its mainframe environment. In addition, IRS had allowed individuals to make changes to mainframe data processing without requiring them to follow established change control procedures to ensure changes were authorized, and did not configure all applications to use strong encryption for authentication, increasing the potential for unauthorized access."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Navy's 2013 report to Congress on the Port Royal 's material condition partially addressed congressional reporting requirements but has likely overstated modernization costs should the ship be retained in service. While the Navy acknowledges that it did not obtain an independent structural assessment as required by one of the mandates, the Navy found the condition of the ship to be comparable to other cruisers when its own technical experts assessed the ship. For example, in addressing the congressional requirements, the Navy assessed the Port Royal 's structure and found the condition of the superstructure and interior hull to be typical of other cruisers in the class, indicating its suitability for continued use. The mandate also required that the Navy's assessments be reviewed by experts. GAO found that the Navy's assessment was reviewed by the Naval Sea Systems Command Engineering Directorate, the Navy's technical authority, and by independent boards of subject-matter experts from the Department of Defense and industry—the Board of Inspection and Survey and the American Bureau of Shipping, respectively. All three reviewers generally concurred with the assessment. Finally, the Navy's report to Congress included …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) authority to regulate the practice of representatives before IRS is limited to certain preparers, such as attorneys and certified public accountants. Unenrolled preparers—those generally not subject to IRS regulation—accounted for 55 percent of all preparers as of March 2014. In 2010, IRS initiated steps to regulate unenrolled preparers through testing and education requirements; however, the courts ruled that IRS lacked the authority."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spent (obligated) less than half of the $1.1 billion in tobacco user fees it collected from manufacturers and others from fiscal year 2009 through the end of fiscal year 2012; however, FDA's spending increased substantially in fiscal year 2013. Through December 31, 2013, FDA spent nearly 81 percent of the approximately $1.75 billion in fees collected by that time. According to officials in FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), the center established by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) to implement the act's provisions, the time it took to award contracts contributed to the center spending less than it had planned to spend. In fiscal year 2013, FDA was able to carry out a number of activities that were originally planned for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, such as efforts to educate youth on the dangers of tobacco use. About 79 percent ($1.12 billion) of user fees spent as of December 31, 2013, was spent by three CTP offices: Office of Health Communication and Education, Office of Science, and Office of Compliance and Enforcement."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Treasury (Treasury) continues to make progress in winding down the Capital Purchase Program (CPP). As of January 31, 2014, Treasury's data showed that 624 of the original 707 institutions, or about 88 percent, had exited CPP. Treasury had received about $225 billion from its CPP investments, exceeding the approximately $205 billion it had disbursed. Most institutions exited by repurchasing their preferred shares in full or by refinancing their investments through other federal programs. Treasury also continues to sell its investments in the institutions through auctions; a strategy first implemented in March 2012 to expedite the exit of a number of CPP participants. As of January 31, 2014, Treasury has sold all or part of its CPP investment in 162 institutions through auctions, receiving a total of about 80 percent of the principal amount. A relatively small number of the remaining 83 institutions accounted for most of the outstanding investments. Specifically, 10 institutions accounted for $1.5 billion or about 73 percent of the $2.1 billion in outstanding investments. Treasury estimated a lifetime gain of $16.1 billion for CPP as of November 30, 2013."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Census Bureau (Bureau) has made progress in researching and testing information technology (IT) options for the 2020 Decennial Census, but several of the supporting projects lack schedules and plans, and it is uncertain whether they will be completed in time to inform the decision on the operational design for the 2020 census, planned for September 2015. Specifically, it has begun research on six IT-related projects, such as using the Internet for survey response and using employees' personal smartphones to collect census data. However, four of the projects lacked finalized schedules, and three lacked plans for gauging progress. Moreover, the two projects with completed schedules are not estimated to be completed until after the September 2015 design decision date (see figure)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Army has a standard process to manage litigation costs of its Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) projects that are not accounted for in the annual budget process. Army officials indicated that there is one case between four Army MHPI projects and Pinnacle Property Management (Pinnacle) that met the dollar threshold criteria and that would have been approved through this process. However, Army officials did not use the standard process because the Army determined that it needed to limit access to Pinnacle litigation information to avoid disclosing any information material to the litigation strategy. As a result, the Army used an alternative process to review and approve litigation costs for Pinnacle that is consistent with MHPI operating agreements. Had the standard process been followed, litigation and litigation cost information would have been shared with the MHPI projects construction company, Clark Realty Capital (Clark), and four different offices within the Army. Army and Clark officials decided to use the alternative process allowed by the MHPI’s operating agreements so that fewer personnel would be aware of ongoing litigation information involving Pinnacle. The alternative process allows the Army and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States has played an active role in helping to reform financial regulations to address weaknesses revealed by the 2007-2009 financial crisis. According to Treasury officials, during the acute phase of the crisis, the United States proposed elevating the Group of Twenty (G20) forum—representing 19 countries (including the United States) and the European Union—from the level of finance ministers and central banks to the level of heads of state or government. In 2008, the U.S. President and other G20 leaders held their first summit in Washington, D.C., in part to establish a framework to help prevent financial crises. The G20 leaders established principles for financial regulatory reform and agreed on a series of financial reforms, which they have revised or expanded at subsequent summits. To implement their reforms, the G20 leaders generally have called on their national authorities—finance ministries, central banks, and regulators—and international bodies, including the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and standard setting bodies, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. In 2009, the G20 leaders established FSB to coordinate and promote implementation of the financial reforms, which typically involves standard setting bodies …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The number of reported information security incidents involving personally identifiable information (PII) has more than doubled over the last several years (see figure)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 6 of its19 major information technology (IT) investments were within 10 percent of cost and schedule estimates during fiscal year 2013. The remaining 13 were reported as having significant cost and schedule variances for at least 1 month of the year. Specifically, IRS reported 8 investments as being below cost or ahead of schedule; 3 as behind schedule; and 2 as over cost (see figure). IRS reported a range of reasons for these variances, including cost savings from contract negotiations and scope deferrals for those below cost or ahead of schedule, and procurement delays for those behind schedule. It is important to note that the reported monthly cost and schedule variances are for the fiscal year only. IRS's reporting would be more meaningful if it were supplemented with cumulative cost and schedule variances for the investments or investment segments, consistent with the Office of Management and Budget's guidance for measuring progress towards meeting investment goals."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) Missile Defense Agency (MDA) made progress in its goals to improve acquisition management, and accountability and transparency. The agency gained important knowledge for its Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) by successfully conducting several important tests, including the first missile defense system-level operational flight test. Additionally, key programs successfully conducted developmental flight tests that demonstrated key capabilities and modifications made to resolve prior issues. MDA also made some improvements to transparency and accountability. For example, MDA improved the management of its acquisition-related efforts to deploy a missile defense system in Europe and MDA continued to improve the clarity of its resource and schedule baselines, which are reported to Congress for oversight."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Data from the Veteran's Health Administration (VHA), within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), do not show evidence of VHA receiving contaminated tissue products, although, it is difficult to link adverse events in recipients to such products. VA's National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS), which began operation in 1999, has not issued any patient safety alerts—mandates for action to address actual or potential threats to life or health—or advisories—guidance to address issues such as equipment design and product failure—related to tissue products potentially received by VA medical centers (VAMC) in the last 10 years. NCPS issues patient safety alerts and advisories for recalls that require specific clinical actions to ensure patient safety. Since NCPS began issuing and recording data on recalls in November 2008, NCPS has notified VAMCs of 13 recalls for tissue products from vendors from which VHA could have received affected products—none of these recalls have resulted in patient safety alerts or advisories. For 6 of the recalls, 27 VAMCs reported to NCPS that they had identified and removed the recalled products from their inventories. For the other 7 recalls, none of the VAMCs had the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although the October 2012 and the August 2013 versions of the U.S. Civil-Military Strategic Framework for Afghanistan have similarities, the two versions differ in several aspects. These differences reflect, among other things, the U.S. government's heightened emphasis on the transition, through the end of 2014, of security responsibility for Afghanistan to Afghan security institutions and the Afghan National Security Forces as well as the transition in U.S. policy toward a more traditional diplomatic and development model. Both versions of the framework address four categories of U.S. efforts in support of U.S. national goals in Afghanistan, with security, the first category, as the foundation for the other three categories, or "pillars"--governance, rule of law, and socioeconomic development. Both versions also address the same crosscutting issues. Differences between the two versions include the following:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2013, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) made mixed progress in achieving its acquisition goals to develop, test, and produce elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). For the first time, MDA conducted an operational flight test that involved warfighters from several combatant commands using multiple BMDS elements simultaneously. The agency also successfully conducted several developmental flight tests that demonstrated key capabilities and modifications made to resolve prior production issues. However, the Aegis BMD and Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) continued to experience testing and development challenges."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "CDC has administered and provided oversight of the CPPW program, which includes the monitoring of award recipients. CDC required recipients to use their CPPW funds to support efforts to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, or reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. In addition, CDC suggested possible strategies for achieving these results, such as working to establish smoke-free zones or to implement zoning changes that promote physical activity. CDC policy prohibited CPPW award recipients from using funds for specific types of activities, including lobbying, which generally meant certain activities designed to influence action in regard to a particular piece of pending legislation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), about 60 percent of the chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) have been approved for children, but in many instances approval is limited to specific age groups. In addition, about 40 percent of the CBRN countermeasures have not been approved for any pediatric use. Furthermore, some of the countermeasures have not been approved to treat individuals for the specific indications for which they have been stockpiled. For example, ciprofloxacin is stockpiled in the SNS for the treatment of anthrax, plague, and tularemia, but is not approved for these indications. Countermeasures may be used to treat unapproved age groups or indications under an emergency use authorization (EUA) or an Investigational New Drug (IND) application submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) discontinued enrollment in the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) in early 2011 and stopped most program reimbursements the following year to keep spending within the $5 billion ERRP appropriation. Specifically, anticipating exhaustion of funds, CCIIO stopped ERRP enrollment in May 2011. According to CCIIO officials, CCIIO suspended making reimbursements to plan sponsors in September 2012, as reimbursements had reached the $4.7 billion cap established for paying claims under the original appropriation, and the remainder was reserved for administrative expenses. When the cap was reached, significant demand for the program remained with 5,699 ERRP reimbursement requests left outstanding that accounted for about $2.5 billion in unpaid claims. CCIIO officials told GAO that they planned to pay some of the outstanding reimbursement requests by redistributing any overpayments recovered from plan sponsors--when, for example a plan receives a rebate that lowers the total cost of a prior claim--as well as money recovered from program audits. As of January 2013, officials told GAO that CCIIO had recovered a total of $54 million and redistributed $20.7 million of this amount."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have defined the mission and broad goals for Security Force Assistance (SFA) advisor teams; however, teams varied in the extent to which their approaches for developing their Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) units identified activities based on specific objectives or end states that were clearly linked with established goals. SFA guidance states that to be successful, advisors must have an end or goal in mind, and establish objectives that support higher-command plans. Theater commanders have outlined goals aimed at strengthening specific capabilities such as logistics, and it is largely left to the teams to then develop their approach for working with their counterparts. GAO found some advisor teams had developed structured advising approaches drawing from these goals, such as identifying monthly objectives and milestones for their team. Other teams GAO met with used less structured approaches, such as relying on interactions with ANSF counterparts to identify priorities and using this input to develop activities on an ad hoc basis, rather than as part of a longer-term, more structured approach to achieve broad goals. Officials from several teams stated …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data are not sufficient for identifying who claims a tax expenditure and how much they claim for $492 billion or almost half the dollar value of all tax expenditures that GAO examined. Such basic data are not available at IRS for tax expenditures because they do not have their own line item on a tax form. This included $102 billion of tax expenditures that were not on tax forms, such as the exclusion of interest on life insurance savings, and $390 billion of tax expenditures that were on tax forms but did not have their own line items, such as the credit for holding clean renewable energy bonds which is aggregated with other credits on a single line item."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Fiscal sustainability presents a national challenge shared by all levels of government. Since 2007, GAO has published long-term fiscal simulations for the state and local government sector. These simulations have consistently shown that, like the federal government, the state and local sector faces persistent and long-term fiscal pressures and, absent any policy changes, would face an increasing gap between receipts and expenditures in future years."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2011, GAO has identified 11 areas across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where fragmentation, overlap, or potential duplication exists and 13 areas of opportunity for cost savings or enhanced revenue collections. In these reports, GAO has suggested 53 total actions to the department and Congress to help strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of DHS operations. In GAO’s 2013 annual report on federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives that have duplicative goals or activities, GAO identified 6 new areas where DHS could take actions to address fragmentation, overlap, or potential duplication or achieve significant cost savings. For example, GAO found that DHS does not have a department-wide policy defining research and development (R&D) or guidance directing components how to report R&D activities. Thus, DHS does not know its total annual investment in R&D, which limits its ability to oversee components’ R&D efforts. In particular, GAO identified at least 6 components with R&D activities and an additional $255 million in R&D obligations in fiscal year 2011 by DHS components that was not centrally tracked. GAO suggested that DHS develop and implement policies and guidance for defining and overseeing …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has worked with U.S. implementing agencies, international donors, and partner countries to increase the efficiency and reliability of antiretroviral (ARV) drug supply chains. It has done so by improving drug supply planning and procurement as well as incountry distribution of drugs. First, PEPFAR has consolidated supply chains for ARV drug procurement for more than 20 partner countries to enhance efficiency and reduce costs and has begun further consolidation with other U.S. global health programs. Second, PEPFAR has improved coordination among donors by creating an information-sharing network to help detect and resolve supply gaps and other supply chain weaknesses and by developing an emergency drug procurement mechanism. Third, PEPFAR has provided partner countries with technical assistance, such as assessment tools and training, to help them better manage drug supply planning, procurement, and distribution."