A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Congress and federal agencies are increasingly turning to performance-based contracting methods to enhance the delivery of government services. Share-in-Savings (SIS) contracting--in which the contractor assumes more risk by investing upfront costs but also receives a share in any savings generated by its efforts--is one performance-based technique that Congress is trying to promote. We were asked to examine its use by industry in terms of whether there were any key conditions that needed to be in place to make this technique successful. In conducting our review, we found that the form of SIS used in a commercial contract varied by contract. Some contracts employed a basic SIS approach, in which a contractor's total compensation was paid entirely through sharing a portion of a client's savings or increased revenues. And some employed a tailored approached in which contractors were paid for at least some portion of their time and materials costs, even if savings or increased revenues were not realized. We performed a detailed analysis on four specific contracts to identify conditions that fostered success."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Presented is GAO's performance and accountability report for fiscal 2002. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. Importantly, GAO received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements for the 16th consecutive year. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The rapid pace of technological change, with its potential to transform the way the government delivers services, makes information technology (IT) human capital a critical issue for federal agencies.GAO has identified strategic human capital management as a high risk area for the federal government, and the demand for skilled IT workers is expected to increase over the long term. Given that competition for workers affects the federal government as it does any other employer, effective training of staff is essential to developing and retaining a qualified workforce. Some private-sector companies are recognized for their effective and innovative training programs form the IT workforce, which could provide models and examples for federal agencies. To help federal agencies better design and implement such training programs, GAO was asked to examine private-sector practices for training both IT and non-IT professionals (e.g., business managers and other staff needing training in IT) that could be used as a basis for addressing federal efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To enhance the capacity and safety of the national airspace system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), within the Department of Transportation, is acquiring 74 Standard Terminal Automation Replacement Systems (STARS). STARS will replace some outdated air traffic control equipment. Since 1996, when FAA initiated this major computer hardware and software acquisition, the scope and estimated costs of STARS have changed many times. FAA now estimates that STARS's remaining costs will total about $2.54 billion. GAO was asked to assess the reliability of FAA's life-cycle cost estimate for STARS, determine the impact of STARS's estimated costs on future FAA budgets, and identify any alternatives to STARS that FAA is considering. GAO based its analysis on published FAA cost data and the guidance FAA uses for managing major acquisitions."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report is to bring the Office of Federal Procurement Policy's attention to two GAO recommendations concerning the acquisition of information technology services under the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS). In GAO's view, implementation of these recommendations has been delayed because of unnecessary coupling with other FSS issues."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "While the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rationalizes its infrastructure, it is weighing a proposal to close and sell its Information Technology (IT) center located in San Mateo, California. According to USPS, closing the IT center and selling the facility should save USPS about $74 million over the next 10 years and result in increased efficiency. All IT union employees and about half of IT management employees will be offered the opportunity to relocate with their jobs to other postal IT centers. The San Mateo IT Center also houses an Accounting Service Center whose functions and staff are to be moved into leased space in the San Francisco Bay Area. GAO undertook this study to, among other things, identify the process USPS is following in making its decision about closing the IT center and determine the impact such a closure would have on IT employees at the center."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In our December 2001 report, "United States Postal Service: Information on Retirement Plans" (GAO-02-170), we raised the question of whether the United States Postal Service (USPS) was paying more or less than appropriate to cover benefit payments for the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) for which it is responsible. In May 2002, we asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to calculate a hypothetical "Postal Fund" balance and projected funding status by estimating the present value (PV) of the future benefits USPS is required to fund for CSRS retirees and survivors under current law and extent to which prior and projected future contributions required by current law would fund these benefits. OPM released its analysis in November 2002, indicating that, based on current contributions, USPS's CSRS obligations would be significantly overfunded in the future. The Administration has proposed legislation that addresses this overfunding. In this correspondence we will (1) review OPM's analysis for reasonableness and (2) analyze the legislative proposal to identify any issues needing further consideration."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Reported declines in the rate at which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits (also referred to as "examines") individual income tax returns have raised concerns that taxpayers may have a false perception of the true level of IRS's tax enforcement efforts. In addition, many observers are concerned these reported declines may reduce taxpayers' motivation to voluntarily pay their taxes. Because of these concerns, GAO was asked to review a number of issues surrounding IRS's enforcement efforts. GAO determined the trends in the percent of returns filed that are audited (contact rate) compared with similar data on taxpayer contacts through other enforcement programs for fiscal years 1993 through 2002. In addition, GAO reviewed whether IRS's reporting on its enforcement programs should be expanded."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The radiofrequency spectrum--a natural resource used for wireless communications--is a critical input to various commercial and government functions. Because of expanding commercial and government demand for spectrum, there is increasing debate on how best to manage this resource to meet current and future needs. GAO was asked to examine whether future spectrum needs can be met, given the current regulatory framework; what benefits and difficulties have arisen with the application of market mechanisms to spectrum management; and what barriers exist to reforming spectrum management."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched an initiative to screen and test veterans for hepatitis C--a chronic blood-borne virus that can cause potentially fatal liver-related conditions. Since 2001, GAO has been monitoring VA's hepatitis C program. This year GAO was asked to report on VA's hepatitis C disease management practices. GAO surveyed 141 VA medical facilities about their processes for notifying veterans concerning hepatitis C test results and evaluating veterans' medical conditions regarding potential treatment options. In addition, GAO reviewed medical records of 100 hepatitis C patients at 1 facility and visited 4 other facilities that used unique hepatitis C disease management processes."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) collects health insurance payments, known as third-party collections, for veterans' health care conditions it treats that are not a result of injuries or illnesses incurred or aggravated during military service. In September 1999, VA adopted a new fee schedule, called "reasonable charges," that it anticipated would increase revenues from third-party collections. In 2001, GAO testified that problems in VA's collections operations diminished VA's collections. For this report, GAO was asked to examine VA's third-party collections and problems in collections operations for fiscal year 2002 as well as its initiatives to improve collections."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Aviation experts believe that building runways is one key way to address airport capacity issues and prevent delays that can affect the entire U.S. economy, but runway projects are often controversial and time-consuming. GAO was asked to examine how much time airports spend completing runways, what challenges airports and other stakeholders experience during this process, and what airports and other stakeholders have done to address challenges related to runway projects. GAO analyzed the results of surveys from 30 airports on 32 runway projects and visited 5 airports in order to interview numerous runway project stakeholders. The Department of Transportation agreed with GAO's characterization of the challenges associated with building runways and some of the initiatives taken to address these challenges. They did express some concerns related to GAO's analysis of the time airports spent or estimated spending in developing runways, and suggested that GAO acknowledge additional FAA efforts to improve the runway process. We believe that our approach was a reasonable assessment of the amount of time taken to build runways; however, we clarified our discussion about the length of time. We also added information regarding …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1998, the federal government has taken steps to protect the nation's critical infrastructures, including developing partnerships between the public and private sectors. These cyber and physical public and private infrastructures, which include the financial services sector, are essential to national security, economic security, and/or public health and safety. GAO was asked to review (1) the general nature of the cyber threats faced by the financial services industry; (2) steps the financial services industry has taken to share information on and to address threats, vulnerabilities, and incidents; (3) the relationship between government and private sector efforts to protect the financial services industry's critical infrastructures; and (4) actions financial regulators have taken to address these cyber threats."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As of September 30, 2001, the Navy's operating appropriations had $2.1 billion in unliquidated--or unpaid--funds that were obligated during fiscal years 1997-99. Unliquidated obligations that are no longer needed to pay for goods and services tie up funds that could be used for other permissible purposes. In addition, inaccurate obligation data result in misstatement of budgetary information. Because of the large dollar value, we examined the Navy's management of unliquidated obligations. Specifically, we reviewed a statistically representative sample of the Navy's $1.4 billion in unliquidated operating obligations valued at $50,000 or more for fiscal years 1997-99 to determine whether these obligations were (1) properly accounted for and (2) reviewed in accordance with DOD regulations."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Water quality standards are composed of designated uses and criteria. These standards are critical in making accurate, scientifically based determinations about which of the nation's waters are in need of cleanup. To assess EPA and states' actions to improve standards, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment asked GAO to determine the extent to which (1) states are changing designated uses when necessary and EPA is assisting the states toward that end and (2) EPA is updating its criteria documents and assisting states in establishing criteria that can be compared with reasonably obtainable monitoring data."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the weakness in screening entrants into the United States. This work was completed in response to a request that agents of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) attempt to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica at land, air, and sea ports of entry using fictitious identities and counterfeit identification documents. The purpose was to test whether U.S. government officials conducting inspections at the port of entry would detect the counterfeit identification documents."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To help measure the quality of the 2000 Census and to possibly adjust for any errors, the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) conducted the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) program. However, after obligating around $207 million for A.C.E. and its predecessor program, Integrated Coverage Measurement (I.C.M.), from fiscal years 1996 through 2001, the Bureau did not use either program to adjust the census numbers. Concerned about the amount of money the Bureau spent on I.C.M. and A.C.E. programs and what was produced in return, the subcommittee asked us to review the objectives and results of the programs, the costs of consultants, and how best to track future coverage measurement activities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Environmental problems do not respect national boundaries. These problems include (1) climate change, (2) drought and the expansion of degraded land, (3) environmental cooperation among the countries of North America, (4) illegal trade in endangered species, and (5) substances that deplete the earth's protective ozone layer. To address such problems, the United States and other nations have entered into numerous international environmental agreements. In implementing these agreements, the parties typically commit to establish domestic programs and report periodically on their progress. Developed nations like the United States may also pledge to provide funds to assist developing nations. GAO was asked to examine (1) U.S. actions to fulfill its commitments under five international agreements identified by the requesters, (2) the means used to track these actions, and (3) the results of others' evaluations of these actions for the selected agreements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The September 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent federal action had a substantial impact on businesses in both the declared disaster areas and around the nation. In the aftermath of the attacks, the Congress, among other actions, appropriated emergency supplemental funds to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to aid September 11 victims. Given the uniqueness of this disaster and changes in the program, GAO analyzed SBA's lending to September 11 victims, as well as the loan program's performance goals and measures."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has changed from a hospital-based system to primary reliance on outpatient care. As a result, VA expects that the number of unneeded buildings will increase. Veterans' needs could be better served if VA finds ways to minimize resources devoted to these buildings. VA must have an effective process to find alternate uses or dispose of unneeded property. In August 2002, VA completed a pilot test for realigning its health care system in the Great Lakes network. The pilot identified 30 buildings that are no longer needed to provide health care to veterans. VA is currently studying how to realign assets in its 20 remaining networks. GAO was asked to review VA's management of unneeded buildings in its Great Lakes network."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO and other budget experts have discussed that the current time horizons and content of the federal budget could be enhanced to more comprehensively reflect the government's commitments or signal emerging problems. GAO was asked to (1) provide information on the range and nature of responsibilities, programs, and activities that may explicitly or implicitly expose the government to future spending and (2) present and discuss options for increasing the attention paid to these items in the budget and budget process. GAO recommends that OMB report annually on fiscal exposures. Where possible, OMB should report the estimated costs-"exposure level"-of certain activities in the Program and Financing schedules of the budget. In a few select areas, the ultimate objective might be to include costs directly in the budget when doing so would enhance up-front control of spending. Congress may wish to consider exploring options for improving the budgetary information and the attention given to fiscal exposures. If more explicit congressional consideration is desired, as estimates improve, Congress may wish to develop budget process mechanisms that prompt more deliberation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On December 9, 2002, GAO convened a governance and accountability forum to discuss challenges facing regulators, the accounting profession, and boards of directors and management of public companies in effectively implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulatory actions to improve public confidence in U.S. corporate governance and accountability systems. Major accountability breakdowns recent years, exacerbated in the last 2 years by the unprecedented massive breakdowns and bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom, have contributed to the decline in investor confidence in U.S. capital markets. The forum focused on the four interrelated areas of corporate governance, the financial reporting model, the accounting profession, and regulation and enforcement that the accountability breakdowns have surfaced as critical areas to be strengthened. Addressing these challenges will involve the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. In general, there must be the proper incentives, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in place to ensure the effectiveness of any system. As a result, these overarching principles were considered in connection with the issues discussed. Forum participants included individuals from federal and state government, the private sector, standards setting and oversight bodies, and a variety of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although environmental liabilities resulting from federal programs and activities represent the third largest category of the federal government's liabilities, the current cash- and obligation-based budget does not provide information on estimated cleanup costs before waste-producing assets are purchased. As a result, policymakers do not have the opportunity to weigh the full costs of a proposal with their judgment of its benefits. The Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget asked GAO to examine and report on various ways budgeting might be improved for environmental cleanup costs, including some of the benefits, limitations, and challenges associated with each."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some economists predict that by 2030, the United States could experience a labor shortage of 35 million workers. As the shortage approaches, one option available is to encourage people to work beyond traditional retirement ages, especially because people who are age 55 or older will constitute nearly a third of the poppulation. Accordingly, increasing demands will be made on the workforce development system to help ensure that older workers are provided opportunities to help address the anticipated labor shortage. Concerned that the existing workforce development system may not meet the needs of older workers, the Subcommittee's Ranking Minority Member asked GAO to determine the extent that older workers are enrolled in federal employment and training programs, what services are provided, and how performance measures affect such services."