Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Third party payments represent blank-form financial instruments that government employees use to pay for expenses when traditional payments are not feasible or possible. GAO surveyed government entities on their use of third party payments. Forty of the 86 entities that responded to GAO's survey reported that they had used third party payment instruments at some time during fiscal years 1997 through 1999. Although the number of reported payment transactions declined 3.7 percent for these 40 entities during this period, the reported total dollar amount associated with these transactions rose 13.4 percent. On the basis of the transaction data reported, the average dollar value of each payment rose 17.6 percent. Among the 40 entities, the most common reasons cited for using third party payment instruments were (1) to pay for small purchases of supplies and services; (2) to pay contractors that either could not or would not accept government checks, electronic funds transfers, or credit card payments; (3) to make emergency payments; (4) to provide immediate reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses; or (5) as an alternative to disbursing a cash advance. In response to questions about whether entities used internal …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence answers congressional questions about financial and information technology management of the Medicare Program. Among the topics discussed are claims processing, management of statistical data, and computer viruses. For example, in reference to claims processing, GAO found that, as of December 2000, Medicare carriers and fiscal intermediaries use six standard claims processing systems to process Medicare part A and B claims. Each contractor relies on one of these standard systems to process its claims, and adds its own front-end and back-end processing systems. These claims processing systems date back as far as 1982. In reference to the management of statistical data, GAO found that the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) common working file provides individual beneficiary claims data to HCFA's National Claims History File, which is used as the source of statistical information on Medicare and medical data. HCFA officials were unaware of any system outside HCFA from which this type of data could be obtained. Finally, regarding computer viruses, a HCFA information technology security official told GAO that the "I LOVE YOU" virus did not contaminate its systems. The official said the virus did not harm …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From October 1998 through August 2000, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications made 50 trips at a total cost to the government of $58,840. At least 39 of these trips were made in conjunction with trips by the SBA Administrator. Of the remaining 11 trips, the travel vouchers and authorizations for eight contained no reference to the Administrator and the other three were to attend training sessions."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Defense offsets are the full range of industrial and commercial benefits that firms provide to foreign governments as inducements or conditions for the purchase of military goods and services. The U.S. government has maintained a "hands off" policy toward defense offsets, viewing them as part of the transaction between the contracting parties. However, offsets are one of the many factors contributing to the globalization of the U.S. industrial base. This testimony presents GAO's observations on (1) the impact of offsets, (2) trends in defense offsets, and (3) the quality and extent of information currently available concerning offsets. Views on the effects of offsets are divided between those who believe that they are both positive and an unavoidable part of doing business overseas and those who believe that they harm the U.S. industrial base. Recently, countries buying U.S. defense items have become increasingly sophisticated in their offset demands. Finally, identifying the effect of offsets on industrial sectors or the U.S. economy as a whole is difficult."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Army ground forces have been deployed to the Balkans since December 1995. For these personnel, such a tour of duty involves a significant change in living conditions and separation from family and friends. The Army has spent more than $2 billion to build camps and implement services to sustain deployed personnel. Much of what has been spent contributes to enhancing soldiers' quality of life. GAO examined (1) how the Army defines and views the quality of life of deployed soldiers in the Balkans and (2) the quality of life at three base camps in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. GAO found that the Army (1) defines quality of life as the provision of equitable, adequate, and appropriate living, working, and leisure conditions consistent with available resources and political and military considerations and (2) is providing facilities in keeping with its established quality of life standards. GAO also found that most soldiers were satisfied with the living conditions and recreational facilities."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its involvement with the Navy Personal Property Working Group, GAO reviewed the Department of the Navy's implementation of the Defense Property Accountability System (DPAS). As requested by the working group, GAO visited six Navy activities to evaluate DPAS implementation at those selected locations. GAO found that (1) physical wall-to-wall inventories of personal property were not being done properly; (2) personal property items were not being included in DPAS at a component level to ensure accountability; and (3) policies, procedures, and training were not in place to ensure the sustainability of the property database."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO investigated a complaint about improper activities at the Keystone Job Corps Training Center in Drums, Pennsylvania. The complaint alleged the center was enrolling individuals who were at a state prison facility, the Youth Services Agency. The complaint alleged that these individuals posed a threat to the safety and well being of the regular student population at the Keystone Job Corps Training Center. GAO found that, contrary to the allegations, the Youth Services Agency is not a state prison. It is a facility for youths convicted of delinquency-related offenses. GAO also found that enrollees were screened to determine whether they were disruptive or dangerous."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Allegations of favoritism were raised about the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General's (OIG) payment of relocation allowances to certain employees. GAO investigated the transfers of six OIG employees between or within its New York and New Jersey district offices from 1995 to November 2000. GAO found that decisions to grant or deny permanent change of station (PCS) and related relocation allowances were based on the needs of OIG and the availability of funds and do not appear to result from favoritism. Furthermore, the reimbursement associated with the PCS was in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations."

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."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This document focuses on the Department of Defense's (DOD) kinetic energy anti-satellite (KE-ASAT) program. GAO found the program is in a state of disarray. Problem areas include funding, limited management, and poor record keeping. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence had recommended that DOD complete the existing contracts, place the weapon system in storage, and pursue no further development of the program. If DOD decides to continue the program, however, considerable work will be needed to make the system ready for operational testing. Furthermore, DOD will need to strengthen its internal and financial controls to ensure that government resources are used in compliance with government regulations."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Presidential Transition Act was intended to simplify the transfer of executive power during presidential transitions. The events that have transpired since this year's Presidential election, however, will severely shorten the time available for the transition. This report focuses on five themes that will help the new administration implement its agenda and address management challenges in the federal government. These five themes include (1) focusing on management issues early, (2) building on progress already made in implementing a management framework, (3) constructing organizational approaches that recognize the reality of changing global and technological dynamics, (4) seizing the opportunity to reassess what government does and how it does it, and (5) making decisions with an eye toward long-term fiscal and policy challenges."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This financial audit manual describes the methodology used by GAO and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency to perform financial statement audits of federal entities."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has updated its guidance on controls over employee time and attendance activities to (1) provide agencies with the flexibility needed to streamline time and attendance reporting systems, (2) allow agencies to reduce their costs while maintaining adequate internal control, and (3) update the requirements on electronic signature control."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit resulted in the Forest Service's suspending or maintaining the suspension of 49 projects within Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests--11 for contracted timber sales and 27 for vegetative management actions. The decision did not result in the suspension of projects in other national forests in Alabama and Florida. According to Forest Service officials and other stakeholders, the decision has had various consequences for timber sales and vegetative management projects in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. In some cases, such as the suspended timber sale projects, the consequences could be quantified in terms of monetary claims against the Forest Service and reduced receipts to local communities. In other cases, such as the suspended vegetative management projects, the consequences are more qualitative. According to Forest Service officials, the suspensions affected the Forest Service's ability to control for wildfires, sedimentation, and southern pine beetle infestations; to protect endangered species; and to ensure habitat diversity. Although the environmental group that filed the lawsuit against the Forest Service could not provide any data on the consequences of the suspended timber sales and vegetative …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This document reviews the Department of Veterans Affairs' oversight of laundry services at its Medical Center in Albany, New York. GAO found inadequate management and oversight of the contract for operating the laundry facility. There was no separation of duties between the quality assurance evaluator and the contracting officer's technical representative. This individual allowed the contractor to deviate from the contract's terms. As a result, it appears that the contractor was overpaid for the services provided."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Forest Service canceled or suspended several timber sales contracts to protect endangered or threatened species. From October 1992 through June 1996, the Forest Service paid $6.5 million to settle claims on 48 canceled or suspended contracts. Currently, there are pending claims of about $51 million for canceled or suspended contracts. To minimize its financial liability in the future, the Forest Service is developing cancellation regulations and a new standard timber sales contract. Progress in finalizing these new regulations has been slow because of the Forest Service's need to conduct a more detailed economic analysis. The proposed rules have also undergone several changes since the Forest Service began working on them in the late 1980s to settle some of the timber companies' claims. The Forest Service has sometimes used replacement timber; however, the timber replacement program has had limited success because the timber was either unavailable within the sale area or was in such poor condition that many companies would not accept it."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Humana, Inc., a large Medicare Choice Plan, provided a prescription drug benefit with a coverage limit that was below the amount listed in its 1998 Florida Medicare Choice contract. Ernst and Young, the contractor hired by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to review Humana's contract submission, did not detect the discrepancies because it failed to follow HCFA's review procedures. HCFA has revised its processes and procedures for monitoring the accuracy of the information in Medicare Choice plans' contracts. The Humana case shows that the agency did not follow procedures that could have revealed the contract discrepancies that caused some beneficiaries to receive less coverage for brand name prescription drugs than the amount specified in their plan's basic package. Unless HCFA adheres to its revised monitoring procedures, beneficiaries will have few guarantees that they will receive the prescription drug benefits for which the government contracted and paid."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As required by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986, GAO must periodically determine whether the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) uses fair practices in determining which vendors win contracts. This correspondence provides information on MWAA's uses contracting practices between 1992 and 1999. GAO found that 2,843 contracts for supplies and services were awarded during this period. The initial award of these contracts was $1.43 billion. Between 1998 and 1999, GAO found that 95 out of 124 large contracts had been awarded using full and open competition. The remaining contracts were awarded on a sole-source basis or by using limited competition."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of the serious concern for health care workers in the United States, GAO examined the benefit and cost implications of purchasing needlestick prevention devices for hospitals. GAO estimates about 69,000 needlesticks in hospitals can be prevented in 1 year through the use of needles with safety features. Eliminating these needlesticks could reduce the number of health care workers who become infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after sustaining a needlestick injury. GAO's analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that reducing needlesticks may prevent at least 25 cases of HBV and at least 16 cases of HCV infection per year. The reduction in the number of HIV infections cannot be estimated. GAO estimates that the cost to purchase needles with safety features would be between $70 million and $352 million per year. The exact cost to adopt these needles is difficult to determine because several factors must be considered, including the cost to train workers to use the devices and the extent to which the needles reduce injuries."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Forest Service consolidated its Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station with its Intermountain Research Station. The resulting consolidated station was renamed the Rocky Mountain Research Station and was relocated to Fort Collins, Colorado. The Forest Service originally proposed consolidating the two stations in 1992 but delayed taking any action until it completed its reorganizational assessment in May 1997. The Forest Service cut 18 managerial and administrative staff positions during the consolidation. The positions that were eliminated were either transferred to other Forest Service units or were vacated through retirement or employee buyouts. Since 1992, the research funding available to the merged station has remained relatively constant, about 15 percent of the Forest Service's budget for research stations, and the number of employees has remained relatively stable."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on GAO's review of the South Boston Piers Transitway Finance Plan. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is building a 1.5 mile underground transitway to connect its existing transit system with the South Boston Piers area, which is undergoing significant economic development. The project is experiencing cost increases and schedule delays, which have led to concerns over funding. GAO notes that although MBTA has shown that it has the financial capacity to complete the project, it has not yet clearly demonstrated to the Federal Transit Administration's financial management oversight contractor that funding the transitway project will not impair its ability to operate and maintain its overall transit system."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) subsidiary, NASD Dispute Resolution (DR), failed to update its arbitrator disclosure system in a timely manner. As a result, several parties in an arbitration did not receive timely information on their arbitrator. To reduce the potential for further errors, NASD-DRplans to: (1) introduce a form that will allow arbitrators to submit updated information electronically, and (2) centralize processing of the information in itsDepartment of Neutral Management. In 1992 and 1998, NASD-DR also used other measures to ensure that arbitrator background information was current. Because NASD-DR has made these changes and plans to make additional improvements to its procedures for updating arbitrator disclosure information, GAO is not making any further recommendations at this time."