Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined Navy inventory management activities to determine whether any unauthorized activity codes had been used to requisition new and excess property. GAO found that as of June 2000, the Navy maintained 2,002 activity codes identified as unauthorized to requisition government property. However, during the last five years, 663 of these codes were used to requisition more than $2 billion in new and excess government property. In addition, there were no safeguards in the Defense Automatic Addressing System Center or the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to prevent these activity codes from being used. This has created a condition in which government property is vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO concludes that the V-22 program is not ready for full-rate production. This conclusion is based on two factors. First, GAO's "best practices" work has identified practices used by successful commercial and defense programs to develop and produce quality products in significantly less time and at lower costs. GAO reviews of major weapons systems have shown that failure to follow these practices results in cost increases, schedule delays, and performance problems. Second, GAO analyzed Department of Defense (DOD) assessments and data on the V-22 program and interviewed DOD officials. As a result of GAO's findings, DOD postponed the full-rate production of the V-22 aircraft until the risks have been mitigated."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes AIMD-21.2.7, Guaranteed Loan System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (Exposure Draft), August 2000. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act requires agencies to implement and maintain financial management systems that substantially comply with federal financial management system requirements. These requirements are detailed in the guidance issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program and the Office of Management and Budget. GAO issued a checklist that reflects the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program's Revised Guaranteed Loan System Requirements to help (1) agencies implement and monitor their guaranteed loan systems and (2) managers and auditors review agency guaranteed loan systems to determine if they substantially comply with act. This checklist is not required to be used to assess guaranteed loan systems. Rather, it is provided as a tool for use by experienced staff and is one in a series of documents GAO has issued to help agencies improve or maintain effective operations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommended in 1997 that IRS simplify the tax law. The Commission reported a connection between the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code and the difficulty of administering it and taxpayer frustration with the tax system. It reported that such complexity can lead to inadvertent noncompliance, increase costs to taxpayers, and complicate tax collection. The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 requires the Joint Committee on Taxation to report to Congress on the overall state of the federal tax system and on proposals to simplify it. This report provides information to help the Joint Committee with its study. Specifically, GAO provides information on (1) the scope and size of the code, the number of Congressionally-mandated studies of the tax system, and the amount of tax guidance and regulations issued by IRS; (2) the number and scope of IRS forms, schedules, publications, and worksheets; (3) the number of tax returns filed and people claimed on these returns, by various characteristics for selected years; and (4) the number of assistance provided to taxpayers by IRS, return preparers, and computerized software …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Navy Wives Clubs of America, for fiscal years 1998-2000. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit reports included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses (1) whether the goals of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Restructuring Act's goals are realistic and (2) disagreements between the IRS Oversight Board, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), and GAO on the act's funding issues. GAO found that the act's goals of meeting taxpayers' needs while ensuring compliance with the tax laws require a massive modernization of IRS. These changes involve major management challenges and will require considerable time to implement. Although IRS officials believe that they have complied with the act's requirements, they are still learning how to effectively manage in the new environment. GAO believes that it is premature to consider significant changes to the act. Differences exist among the Oversight Board, TIGTA, and GAO with respect to specific IRS funding issues."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A January report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) identified a $5 billion gap between the amount of money that federal agencies reported as research and development (R&D) support and the amount of money that those who did the R&D work reported as spent in 1998. According to NSF, federal agencies earmarked about $72 billion for R&D support in 1998, while those who carried out the R&D reported spending about $67 billion. GAO found that this gap results primarily from annually comparing two separate and distinct types of financial data--federal obligations and performer expenditures--that are not comparable. In addition, R&D funding are collected on a yearly basis, but,in reporting, the period that defines a year can vary. Furthermore, agencies and performers do not always agree on what type of activities fall under the category of R&D. Because the gap results from comparing two dissimilar types of financial data, it does not necessarily reflect poor-quality data, nor does it reflect whether performers are receiving or spending all the federal R&D funds obligated to them. Thus, even if the data collection and reporting issues were addressed, a gap would still …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., for fiscal year 2000. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Discrimination complaints by minority farmers who were denied benefits under the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) farm assistance programs have been a long-standing issue. In 1997, a group of African-American farmers consolidated their claims of racial discrimination in farm lending and benefit programs into one class action suit against USDA. In April 1999, a federal district court approved a consent decree to settle the suit that included a framework for resolving the individual claims. This correspondence examines (1) the status of claims under the class action settlement and (2) the results of the Department's efforts to resolve discrimination complaints by minority farmers through its administrative processes. GAO found that the consent decree provides for various parties outside the federal government to decide on the individual claims on the basis of information submitted by the claimants and USDA. Although USDA participates in the process, it does not make decisions on the individual claims. As of January 2001, more than 25,000 people had filed claims under the consent decree. At the same time, however, more than 3,600 claimants were rejected as not being eligible class members, and more than 7,900 who …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Without adequate transportation, welfare recipients face significant barriers in moving from welfare to work. Three-fourths of welfare recipients live in central cities or rural areas, while two-thirds of the new jobs are in the suburbs. For many of these new jobs, access to public transportation facilities, such as buses or subways, is limited or nonexistent. To address this issue, the Department of Transportation (DOT) implemented the Job Access and Reverse Commute program. GAO's previous reviews of this program found that, although it would help support the reform of the welfare system by providing transportation resources to welfare recipients, DOT needed to improve several aspects of the program. GAO made several recommendations to enhance DOT's evaluation of the program and to promote coordination with other agencies. GAO reported that in 1999 and 2000, DOT had implemented the recommendations and had taken steps to refine its grant selection process. GAO plans to issue a report on the Job Access program in December 2001, and, in 2002, GAO expects to report on grantees' experiences in implementing their Job Access projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency in the legislative branch. GAO provides Congress with the best information available to help members make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO meets Congress' information needs by (1) evaluating how government programs and policies are working, (2) auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively, (3) investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities, and (4) issuing legal decisions and opinions. Most GAO work is done at the request of committees or members, but some reports are self-initiated or done in response to congressional mandates included in public laws or committee reports. GAO's annual index is a two-volume set. The first volume--Abstracts of Reports and Testimony: Fiscal Year 2000--contains summaries of 878 publicly released reports and testimony listed alphabetically by division or staff office. Classified reports, correspondence, and legal publications are not included. The second volume--Indexes for Reports and Testimony: Fiscal Year 2000--contains several indexes to help you locate reports and testimony by issue category, subject matter, title, or GAO witness. The annual index is also available in electronic …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence provides information on GAO's efforts to obtain access to executive branch records needed to complete its study of United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping operations. GAO's experience in trying to obtain these records has impaired its ability to conduct meaningful oversight work for Congress that is timely, independent, objective, fact-based, accurate, and complete. Specifically (1) unreasonable delays in obtaining access to the executive branch records have prevented GAO from sending a timely report to Congress, (2) GAO does not have reasonable assurance that it has had independent access to all executive branch records that may have a material bearing on its study, and (3) denying GAO access to records has impaired its ability to conduct a complete and accurate assessment of U.N peacekeeping operations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 allows the use of performance-based payment (PBP) as an alternative to other forms of contract financing. According to the Department of Defense (DOD), the paying office processed about one million invoices for 363,000 major contracts. In fiscal year 1999, only 195 of these contracts contained performance-based provisions. These contracts are so few in number because they are a relatively new form of contracting within DOD. In November 2000, however, DOD indicated that performance-based financing will be military's preferred contract financing method for future fixed-price contracts. This report reviews the C-17 aircraft production program as a case study of the business processes used to make investment expenditures during the production phase of a major weapons system. GAO chose this contract because it is mature, stable, and is performance-based rather than cost-based. GAO found internal control weaknesses in the C-17 program affecting compliance with regulations, policies, and procedures over (1) establishing withhold amounts by the Air Force contracting officer for conditionally accepted items, (2) processing by the Administrative Contracting Officer for performance-based payment requests, (3) processing by the Administrative Contracting Officer of invoices …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United States Capitol Preservation Commission receives commemorative coin surcharge funds authorized by the United States Capitol Visitor Center Commemorative Coin Act of 1999. Under the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 and the U.S. Mint's Compliance Procedures for Surcharge Eligibility, the commission must meet certain requirements before receiving available coin surcharge funds. The commission must provide the U.S. Mint with eligibility-related assertions associated with the commission's receipt and use of private matching funds, and an independent auditor must examine the assertions. GAO found that the assertion about the commission's receipt and use of private matching funds pursuant to the law and the U.S. Mint's Compliance Procedures for Surcharge Eligibility are fairly stated in all respects."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Women's Army Corps Veterans' Association, for fiscal year 2000. GAO found no reportable evidence of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Endangered Species Act seeks to protect affected species and their habitats from the activities of federal agencies and individual landowners. If a landowner plans to engage in an activity that may harm endangered species or their habitats, the landowner may prepare a Habitat Conservation Plan that may include paying a fee to a third party to ensure that the affected species is protected. GAO reviewed (1) the various types of fee-based mitigation arrangements currently used by the Fish and Wildlife Service, (2) who selects the alternative used to mitigate adverse impacts, (3) the Service's role in setting fees and land exchange ratios, and (4) how the Service ensures that fees are used as intended and that desired mitigation results are achieved. GAO found that (1) eight types of fee-based arrangements are now at the locations GAO visited, seven of which require the landowner to act; (2) the landowner is ultimately responsible for deciding whether to use a fee-based mitigation arrangement after considering its advantages and disadvantages; (3) the Service's level of involvement in setting fees and establishing land exchange ratios varies by project and type of arrangement; …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The states and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot ensure that all active underground storage tanks have the required leak-, spill-, and overfill-protection equipment installed, nor can they guarantee that the installed equipment is being properly operated and maintained. Although the states and EPA regions focus most of their limited resources on monitoring active tanks, empty or inactive tanks can also potentially contaminate soil and groundwater. Half of the states have not physically inspected all of their tanks, and several others have not done inspections often enough to ensure the tanks' safety. Moreover, most states and EPA lack authority to use the most effective enforcement tools, and many state officials acknowledge that additional enforcement tools and resources were needed to ensure tank safety. EPA has the opportunity to correct these limitations within its own regions and to help states correct them through its new tank program initiatives. However, the agency has yet to define many of the implementation details, so it is difficult to determine whether the proposed actions will ensure more inspection coverage and more effective enforcement, especially within the states. Congress could help alleviate …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Information sharing and coordination are key elements in any defense against cyber attacks. The organizations GAO reviewed identified factors they considered critical to their success in building successful information-sharing relationships with and among their members. All of the organizations identified trust as essential to successful relationships. They said that trust could only be built over time and through personal relationships. One of the most difficult challenges identified was the initial reluctance of new members to share information. Other challenges included (1) developing agreements on the use and protection of shared information, (2) obtaining adequate funding for websites and meetings while avoiding contributions intended primarily to promote the interests of an individual organization, (3) maintaining a focus on emerging issues of interest to members, and (4) maintaining appropriately skilled professional and administrative staff."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) developed a computer-assisted training program, known as the Training and Performance Support System (TPSS), to help its employees become more accurate in processing disability compensation and pension claims. The program seeks to provide uniform and consistent training to employees in 57 regional offices. Although VBA's long-term goal is to attain a 96 percent accuracy rate for claims processing, VBA reported an accuracy rate of only 59 percent for fiscal year 2000. This report reviews (1) the status of the TPSS program's development and implementation and (2) the extent to which TPSS will meet its objectives. GAO found that despite VBA's objective to centrally develop a standardized training program, significant delays in the development of TPSS are hindering the program's ability to provide standardized training to claims processing employees. According to VBA's current schedule, the full development of the program will not be completed until at least 2004, or about two years later than VBA had planned. Although VBA provided nine training modules to regional offices to begin the program, the extent to which the offices implemented them varied considerably. Many offices …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration (GSA), the federal government's real property manager, it is responsible for identifying, funding, and completing needed repairs and alterations at federal buildings. This report examines (1) GSA's process for assessing and selecting prospectus-level major repair and alteration design projects for funding, (2) the obstacles that impede GSA from satisfying its repair and alteration requirements, and (3) the consequences associated with deferring needed repairs and alterations at selected buildings. GAO found that in fiscal year 2001, GSA assessed the merits of 27 prospectus-level repair and alteration design projects and recommended 12 for funding. These projects were selected by a multifaceted process that relied on empirical data and professional judgment coupled with specific selection criteria and computer analysis that compared competing projects. GSA explained its decisions when it recommended lower-ranked projects for repairs. However, because of insufficient funding, those projects were placed on GSA's growing repair and alteration inventory. GSA has faced long-standing obstacles, including inadequate program data, the lack of a multiyear repair and alteration plan, and limited funding, in reducing this multibillion-dollar inventory. In addition, funding limitations remain a major obstacle. Delaying …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a report describing the activities of the Personnel Appeals Board, its Office of General Counsel, and its Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Oversight during the last two fiscal years."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must significantly improve telephone assistance if it is to meet its long-term goal of providing world-class customer service to the tens of millions of taxpayers who call. Although IRS has tried to analyze its performance and identify ways to improve, these efforts have been incomplete. IRS' analyses did not cover all of the key management decisions and other key factors that affect telephone performance. Designing and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the key management decisions and other key factors that affect telephone performance in each filing season will be difficult because the factors that affect performance are multiple and interrelated. However, without a more comprehensive analysis of the factors that affect performance, IRS lacks the information it needs to make decisions to improve performance."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government has been pursuing electronic initiatives to strengthen its buying processes, reduce costs, and create a competitive "virtual" marketplace. Small businesses, however, may have difficulty participating in federal on-line procurement programs. Furthermore, the government's business outreach and education programs related to electronic commerce may not be adequately coordinated. For the three federal on-line procurement programs GAO reviewed, the dollar share of awards to small businesses exceeded the overall small business share of total federal contract dollars awarded in fiscal years 2000 and 1999. Although small businesses successfully participated in these three programs, they still face obstacles in conducting electronic procurements with the government. The federal government is taking steps to address some of these obstacles, such as implementing a single point of entry on the Internet for vendors to access information on available government business opportunities greater than $25,000. Each of the four business assistance programs GAO examined had taken steps to educate its clients on electronic commerce as part of its operations. However, GAO could not fully determine the extent of these activities because they are conducted by hundreds of local and regional …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determines the staffing level for its toll-free telephone customer service operations. GAO found that IRS lacks a long-term telephone customer service goal that reflects the needs of taxpayers and the costs and benefits of meeting that goal. Rather, IRS annually determines the level of funding it will seek for its customer service workforce, using its judgment of how to best balance service and compliance activities. IRS then calculates the level of service that funding levels will provide. This approach is inconsistent with the Government Performance and Results Act and the practice of selected public and private call centers that field questions. IRS recognizes the shortcomings of its personnel management and will include performance measures and goals in its 2002 strategic plan. According to IRS officials, the agency also faces challenges in recruiting, training, retaining, and scheduling customer service representatives. IRS is developing a strategy to address each of these issues."