Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO worked with the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop and report a reliable estimate for the postemployment health care benefits due to military retirees, their dependents, and survivors. To accomplish this, the DOD Office of Actuary has contracted with a private sector firm of actuaries and consultants, Milliman & Robertson. This report provides a non-technical summary of the contractor's findings and includes GAO's recommendation that the changes discussed in the reports be implemented. GAO found that although the analysis prepared by the Office of Actuary does a good job of identifying the factors that affect the military postretirement health care benefits liability and of evaluating the possible impact of those factors, issues still need to be addressed. An additional break out of information is needed in some areas in order for the Office of Actuary to properly analyze their impact on liability. The methodology used was generally reasonable, but some deficiencies still remained."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report compares the drug prices paid by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the prices paid by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). On average, for the sample of drug prices analyzed by GAO, HCFA's prices were higher than those of either DOD or VA."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audited the financial statements of the District of Columbia's Highway Trust Fund for fiscal years 1999 and 1998. GAO found that the District did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting related to its Highway Trust Fund as of September 30, 1999. Material weaknesses affected accounting for expenditures and computer system general controls."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have been raised about the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) decision to extend a contract with an accounting firm that has been implicated in major fraud. KPMG's contract with HCFA included annual options to extend performance that could be exercised at HCFA's will. Although information on the fraud investigation was available to HCFA staff at various levels, the information was not used to make reasoned contracting decisions. If HCFA had considered the information and documented its decision to extend KPMG's contract, it could have minimized concerns over the appropriateness of its decision."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In a fiscal year 1999 accountability report to Congress, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) made several clerical errors in the accounting of Medicare trust funds, which caused the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund to be overinvested by about $14 billion and the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund to be underinvested by about $18 billion. Because of these errors, the HI Trust Fund earned excess interest and the SMI Trust Fund lost interest. GAO found that these errors went undetected for a year because of internal control weaknesses. Inadequate training and supervision and ineffective reconciliations were key factors that allowed the errors to go undetected. HCFA took corrective action, however, as soon as the errors were discovered."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The number of Tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant TB cases in the United States has declined steadily since 1992. However, continued vigilance is needed to further reduce TB rates. A resurgence of the disease in the late 1980s and early 1990s was linked to a relaxation of TB control efforts. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization suggest that the presence of TB as a major public health problem in other countries has likely been a key contributor to the number of new cases in the United States. As a result, the United States has undertaken several initiatives to control global TB, including providing funding and technical assistance for TB control programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses possible money laundering by U.S. corporations formed by Russian entities. It is easy for foreign entities to hide their identities while forming shell corporations that can be used for money laundering. GAO investigated the following two Delaware corporations that are suspected of money laundering: Euro-American Corporate Services, Inc. and International Business Creations. Suspicious banking activity involved correspondent bank accounts and wire transfers of funds from Eastern European banks through U.S. banks to other Eastern European banks. Two U.S. banks, Citibank of New York and Commercial Bank of San Francisco, violated their customer policies by failing to close the accounts of clients who did not comply with the bank's requirement to appear at the bank in person within 30 days of opening an account. These banks facilitated the transfer of about $1 billion from Eastern Europe, through U.S. banks, and back to Eastern Europe by corporations formed for Russian brokers. It is possible that these transfers were used to launder money. GAO referred the matter to appropriate law enforcement authorities."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Fund."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defenses (DOD) health care system in Europe and the Pacific, focusing on: (1) what DOD health care resources are available in Europe and the Pacific and what is their cost; (2) how does DOD integrate host nation care into its military health care system; (3) how does DOD ensure the quality of such care; (4) whether beneficiaries have adequate access to medical care; and (5) whether beneficiaries encounter obstacles when obtaining healthcare."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status and basis for the Department of Defense's (DOD) defense cooperation initiatives, focusing on the : (1) data and analysis supporting the 47 initiatives; and (2) likelihood that the initiatives will achieve DOD's desired outcomes."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the amounts of funding available and expended for implementing the states' drinking water programs, focusing on: (1) how the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget requests for the states' implementation of their drinking water programs compare with the amounts authorized and estimated to be needed; (2) how much the states have spent since the passage of the 1996 amendments to implement these programs and how the expenditures compare with the estimated needs; (3) what effects federal funding levels have had, and may have in the future, on the states' ability to implement their programs; and (4) what existing practices have the potential to help the states implement their drinking water programs more effectively and efficiently."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request GAO compared the Department of Education's Longitudinal Evaluation of School Change and Performance Plan (LESCP) to its previous assessment program, the Prospect Study, focusing on: (1) the purpose of each study and how these purposes relate to the needs of policymakers and educators; (2) the process used to design and implement the studies, including obtaining feedback from review panels and releasing the results to Congress and the public ; and (3) the studies' strengths and limitations in light of their purposes and determine the effect these strengths and limitations have on the conclusions that can be drawn from the data."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) performance reports on its science programs, focusing on: (1) whether EPA links science issues in its performance report for fiscal year (FY) 1999 with performance plans for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 and whether the agency's funding request for FY 2001 is linked to specific science activities in its performance plan for that year; (2) whether EPA's performance plan for FY 2001 addresses weaknesses in the agency's science program that GAO previously identified; and (3) the extent to which EPA's draft strategic plan for fiscal years 2000-2005, complies with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 requirements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to remove barriers to hazardous waste cleanup, focusing on: (1) cleanups of remediation waste at sites subject to the three Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements; and (2) the management factors that had slowed the pace of cleanups under the corrective action program in particular."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed top-heavy rules in relation to other pension laws and regulations intended to ensure that workers benefit equitably from their pension plans, focusing on: (1) key differences between top-heavy rules and the general rules for nondiscrimination and vesting in contributions and benefits; (2) the most recent data available for GAO analysis on the characteristics of new plans that report being top-heavy; and (3) what is known about the overall effects of top-heavy rules on numbers of plans and participants and on employer costs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed a court ruling that exempted certain medical residents from paying Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes and Social Security coverage, focusing on: (1) how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration are proceeding since the court decision; and (2) what decisions IRS has made about refunding taxes for social security paid by medical residents and their employers and the effect of those decisions on the Social Security Trust Funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on developments in the local telephone service market, focusing on the: (1) number of rural access lines that have been sold since the Telecommunications Act's passage by large incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC); (2) development of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology and the basis for variations in its rate of deployment; and (3) quality of local telephone service, as indicated by customer complaints and customer survey data reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the major ILECs."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Nations' (U.N.) peacekeeping budget, focusing on: (1) GAO's estimate of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping, as funded from the 2001 U.N. peacekeeping budget; and (2) the major uncertainties in estimating this cost."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the impact of the national water efficiency standards, focusing on: (1) the estimated impact of the national water efficiency standards on water consumption levels and wastewater flows; and (2) how repealing the national standards might affect projected investments in drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure, state and local governments' ability to finance their infrastructure needs, and the likelihood of moratoria on new residential and commercial construction if the demand for water is unabated."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed worker protection, focusing on: (1) the extent to which employers experiencing labor unrest are more likely to be inspected than employers not experiencing labor unrest; and (2) whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has policies for performing inspections during labor unrest and whether these policies are followed."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, focusing on: (1) whether ONDCP provided timely financial reports to Congress; (2) how funds for paid advertising were managed and disbursed; (3) whether ONDCP complied with certain statutory requirements regarding the obligation of funds; (4) what ONDCP has done to develop and implement guidelines for the Campaign in response to program requirements; (5) whether the evaluation designs for phases I, II, and III were appropriate and how well the phases I and II evaluations were implemented; and (6) how effective phases I and II of the Campaign were in influencing group awareness of different types of paid anti-drug media messages and drug attitudes."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the role of testing and evaluation in product development, focusing on: (1) how the conduct of testing and evaluation affects commercial and Department of Defense (DOD) program outcomes; (2) how best commercial testing and evaluation practices compare with DOD's; and (3) what factors account for the differences in these practices."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the District of Columbia Courts' (DC Courts) fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget request and related issues, focusing on: (1) whether DC Courts' FY 2001 budget was reasonable; (2) what were DC Courts' obligations and payments for FY 1999 operations, including totals charged for the Criminal Justice Act, Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Guardianship programs; and (3) what are the DC Courts' obligations and payments related to its court operations and defender services to date for FY 2000."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the increasing prices of Marine Corps spare parts, focusing on: (1) changes in the prices of reparable parts compared with the prices of similar items in the private sector and the reasons for the price changes; and (2) the accuracy of prices set by the Marine Corps."