A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Political appointees in the federal government sometimes seek appointments to career positions, which do not end with an administration. Although merit system principles require that selections be determined solely on the basis of merit after fair and open competition, questions have been raised about whether some individuals have received political favoritism or an unfair advantage, even the appearance of which could adversely compromise the integrity of the system. The 45 agencies GAO surveyed reported that 100 employees converted from political appointments and 11 converted from congressional staff positions from October 1998 through April 2001. All the conversions took place at 21 agencies. Ninety-five of the 111 conversions were to positions at the GS-12 level and above. GAO found that the 21 agencies used appropriate appointment authorities, such as civil service certificates from the competitive selection process, and generally followed merit system procedures. In 17 instances, however, the appointments could give the appearance that individuals had received political favoritism or preferences."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army wants an artillery system with greater firepower, range, and mobility than its current self-propelled howitzer. In 1994, the Army began to develop the Crusader, an advanced artillery system consisting of a self-propelled 155-millimeter howitzer and a resupply vehicle. The Department of Defense (DOD) will decide next year whether the Crusader program should enter its system development and demonstration stage, which will require the commitment of major resources. GAO found that the Crusader program has made considerable progress in developing key technologies and reducing its size and weight. However, more progress and knowledge is needed to minimize the risk of cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls. The Crusader program will likely enter product development with most of its critical technologies less mature than best practices recommend. Most of the Crusader's critical technologies have been demonstrated in a relevant environment but not in the more demanding operational environment. Although the Army is reducing the Crusader's weight so that two vehicles can be deployed on a C-17 aircraft, the deployability advantage gained does not appear significant. The reduction in the Crusader system's weight would only decrease …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The armed services have significantly reduced their procurement of new weapons systems and are keeping their existing systems longer than originally anticipated. The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates that it is spending $59 billion a year on logistics support to operate and sustain weapons systems, but DOD believes that better logistics support practices could reduce these costs by as much as 20 percent. To cut costs and improve efficiency, the military services have begun implementing logistics support strategies that rely on the private sector. DOD Regulation 5000.2-R expresses a preference for using long-term contractor logistics support but requires that an analysis be done first to determine how logistics support work is to be allocated to public or private entities. It is impossible to determine whether initial cost-effectiveness estimates for proposed contractor-logistics-support approaches are being achieved because the Army and Navy lack the required data. Consequently, the services may be adopting support approaches without knowing whether expected readiness improvements and cost-reduction goals are being met, where adjustments are needed, or the conditions under which the various support approaches are likely to achieve the most cost-effective results. Comparisons …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) awarded contracts to three companies in 1990 to develop and test exoatmospheric kill vehicles. One of the contractors--Boeing North American--subcontracted with TRW to develop software for the kill vehicle. In 1998, Boeing became the Lead System Integrator for the National Missile Defense Program and chose Raytheon as the primary kill vehicle developer. Boeing and TRW reported that the June 1997 flight test achieved its primary objectives but detected some sensor abnormalities. The project office relied on Boeing to oversee the performance of TRW. Boeing and TRW reported that deployed target objects displayed distinguishable features when being observed by an infrared sensor. After considerable debate, the program manager reduced the number of decoys planned for intercept flight tests in response to a recommendation by an independent panel. The Phase One Engineering Team, which was responsible for completing an assessment of TRW's software performance within two months using available data, found that although the software had weaknesses, it was well designed and worked properly, with only some changes needed to increase the robustness of the discrimination function. On the basis of that analysis, …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996 requires that agencies refer eligible debts delinquent more than 180 days that they have been unable to collect to the Department of the Treasury for payment and offset and to Treasury or a Treasury-designated debt collection center for cross-servicing. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made progress in referring eligible delinquent debts for collection during fiscal year 2001. Much of the referral volume was late in the year, however, and substantial unreferred balances remained at the end of the fiscal year. Inadequate procedures and controls hampered prompt identification and referral of both eligible non-Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) and MSP debts. The delayed referral of non-MSP debts resulted from problems with the CMS debt-referral system and insufficient CMS monitoring of contractor referrals. The low level of MSP debt referrals resulted primarily from limited contractor efforts and insufficient CMS monitoring of contractor performance. Although GAO did not test whether selected CMS debts had been reasonably excluded from referral and reached no overall conclusion about the appropriateness of CMS exclusions, GAO found that CMS did not report reliable Medicare …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Unlike other federal programs that make expenditures under the direct control of the government, Medicare constitutes a promise to pay for covered medical services provided to its beneficiaries by about one million providers. Given this open-ended entitlement, it is essential that appropriate and effective rules and policies be specified so that only necessary services are provided and reimbursed. Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have promulgated an extensive body of statutes, regulations, policies, and procedures on what shall be paid for and under what circumstances. Information that carriers give to physicians is often difficult to use, out of date, inaccurate, and incomplete. Medicare bulletins that carriers use to communicate with physicians are often poorly organized and contain dense legal language. Similarly, other means of communicating with physicians, such as toll-free provider assistance lines and websites, have problems with accuracy and completeness. Although all carriers issue bulletins, operate call centers, and maintain websites, each carrier develops its own communications policies and strategies. This approach results in a duplication of effort as well as variations in the quality of carrier communications. CMS provides little …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council authorized or maintained 33 peacekeeping operations in 28 countries between fiscal years 1996 and 2001. Fifteen operations were ongoing as of January 2002. Although U.N. member countries are directly assessed for the cost of these operations, some countries, including the United States, implement programs or activities that provide indirect support to peacekeeping operations. The United States directly contributed an estimated $3.45 billion to support U.N. peacekeeping from fiscal years 1996 through 2001. U.S. contributions that indirectly benefited U.N. peacekeeping are estimated at $24.2 billion during this period. GAO defined indirect contributions as U.S. programs and activities that are located in the same area as an ongoing U.N. peacekeeping operation, have objectives that help the peacekeeping operation achieve its mandated objectives, and are not an official part of the U.N. operation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that the national status dropout rate--the percentage of 16- through 24-year olds who are not enrolled in school and who lack a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate--fluctuated between 10.9 and 12.5 percent between 1990 and 2000. However, dropout rates have varied considerably between regions of the country and among ethnic groups. Research has shown that dropping out it is a long-term process of disengagement that begins in the earliest grades. NCES and private research organizations have identified two factors--an individual's family and his or her experience in school--that are related to dropping out. Various state, local, and private programs are available to assist youth at risk of dropping out of school. These programs range in scope from small-scale supplementary services that target a small group of students, such as mentoring or counseling services, to comprehensive school-wide restructuring efforts that involve changing the entire school to improve educational opportunities for all students. One federal program, the Dropout Prevention Demonstration Program, is specifically targeted to dropouts, but the program is new and the Department of Education …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the results of GAO's audits of the financial statements of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for fiscal years 2001 and 2000. GAO was able to provide unqualified opinions on IRS's fiscal years 2001 and 2000 financial statements because IRS senior management and staff made extraordinary efforts to compensate for serious internal control and systems deficiencies. Despite these efforts, IRS found it extremely difficult to meet the February 27 reporting deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB intends to significantly accelerate this deadline in the future. Beginning with fiscal year 2004, IRS will be required to issue its financial statements by November 15--only 6 weeks after the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, the Department of Treasury has established a goal of completing its fiscal year 2002 audit, including those of its component entities, and issuing its department wide accountability report by November 15, 2002. To meet this goal and sustain an unqualified opinion on its financial statements, IRS will need to make systemic changes in how it processes transactions, maintains its financial records, and reports its financial results. At …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress and the scientific community are concerned that the Air Force's investment in science and technology may be too low to meet the challenges presented by new and emerging threats. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 requires the Air Force to review its science and technology programs to assess the budgetary resources currently used and those needed to adequately address the challenges and objectives. GAO found that the Air Force complied with the requirements of section 252 of the act. The Air Force established an integrated product team to identify long-term science and technology challenges and a task force to identify short-term objectives. For each challenge or objective that was identified, the Air Force established teams to identify technological capabilities needed to achieve these goals. Each team chose research projects that addressed the criteria specified in the act. The Air Force also complied with the act's process provisions. The Deputy Assistant Director for Science, Technology and Engineering is required to review the teams' results and to identify any science and technology research not currently funded."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Private landowners own more than two-thirds of the continental United States' 1.9 billion acres. Recognizing the critical role that private landowners play in managing soil, water, and wildlife habitat, Congress directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve stewardship practices on these lands. USDA currently has more than 70 million acres of privately-owned land enrolled in programs that offer landowners financial incentives to implement conservation practices to protect or improve soil and water quality and wildlife habitat. USDA's conservation efforts address specific environmental concerns, target funding toward state and local environmental priority areas, and promote partnerships with state or local entities to leverage limited funding. State technical committee members indicated that although USDA's conservation programs are generally effective, some targeted programs are more effective than others. Committee members cited several elements of the current programs that hinder achievement of environmental objectives and indicated a preference for more flexibility in new or existing programs. More than two-thirds of members considered program provisions that prohibit landowners from receiving compensation for maintaining previously implemented landowner-financed conservation practices to be a hindrance. Members would like to be able to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent $21 billion in fiscal year 2001 to treat 3.8 million veterans--most of whom had service-connected disabilities or low incomes. Since 1997, VA has used the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system to allocate most of its medical care appropriation. GAO found that VERA has had a substantial impact on network resource allocations and workloads. First, VERA shifted $921 million from networks located primarily in the northeast and midwest to networks located in the south and west in fiscal year 2001. In addition, VERA, along with other VA initiatives, has provided an incentive for networks to serve more veterans. VERA's overall design is a reasonable approach to allocate resources commensurate with workloads. It provides a predetermined dollar amount per veteran served to each of VA's 22 health care networks. This amount varies depending upon the health care needs of the veteran served and local cost differences. This approach is designed to allocate resources commensurate with each network's workload in terms of veterans served and their health care needs. GAO identified weaknesses in VERA's implementation. First, VERA excludes about one fifth …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set a drinking water standard for radon. In a proposed rule issued in November 1999, EPA presented a unique and complex drinking water regulation for radon. GAO found that EPA's analysis of the costs to implement the proposed radon rule has several strengths. EPA's estimates of the typical costs for water systems to buy and install radon removal technologies--a key determinant of total national costs--are reasonable for estimating national compliance costs. Moreover, EPA used recommendations from an expert panel to estimate the costs to install and maintain radon removal equipment. EPA also developed a range of annual cost estimates, rather than a single estimate, to account for uncertainty about the extent to which the less costly alternative standard will be adopted by states. EPA's analysis of the national annual costs to comply with its proposed radon drinking water rule has several limitations that, if corrected, would likely increase EPA's best estimate of these costs. EPA made two errors in estimating the various costs associated with programs to reduce radon levels in indoor air under …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicaid program spent more than $200 billion in fiscal year 2000 to meet the health care needs of nearly 34 million poor, elderly, blind, and disabled persons. States are responsible for making proper payments to Medicaid providers, recovering misspent funds, and accurately reporting costs for federal reimbursement. At the federal level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) oversee state financial activities and ensure the propriety of expenditures reported for federal reimbursement. GAO found that weak financial oversight by CMS leaves the program vulnerable to improper payments. The Comptroller General's Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government requires that agency managers perform risk assessment, take steps to mitigate identified risks, and monitor the effectiveness of those actions. The standards also require that authority and responsibility for internal controls be clearly defined. CMS oversight had weaknesses in each of these areas. As a result, CMS did not know if its control efforts were focused on areas of greatest risk. CMS also was not effectively implementing the controls it had in place. Furthermore, managers had not established performance standards for financial oversight activities, particularly their …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia Courts (DC Courts) is acquiring the Integrated Justice Information System (IJIS) to replace many nonintegrated systems. This system is expected to address current deficiencies and provide the courts with necessary information critical to its mission. DC Courts has not yet implemented the disciplined processes necessary to reduce the risks associated with acquiring and managing the IJIS acquisition effort at acceptable levels within established resources and schedule. Most of the DC Courts' requirements, developed in the draft request for proposal, lacked the specificity needed to ensure that requirements had been reduced to acceptable levels and the system would meet users' needs. DC Courts officials want to use the acquisition process to identify the cost, schedule, and performance gaps associated with their effort. DC Courts officials acknowledge that this approach increases risk; however, they believe that accelerating the implementation of a badly needed system justifies those risks. As with any effort, alternative approaches need to be analyzed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) awarded contracts to three companies in 1990 to develop and test exoatmospheric kill vehicles. One of the contractors--Boeing North American--subcontracted with TRW to develop software for the kill vehicle. In 1998, Boeing became the Lead System Integrator for the National Missile Defense Program, and chose Raytheon as the primary kill vehicle developer. Boeing and TRW reported that the June 1997 flight test achieved its primary objectives, but that some sensor abnormalities were detected. The project office relied on Boeing to oversee the performance of TRW. Boeing and TRW reported that deployed target objects displayed distinguishable features when being observed by an infrared sensor. After considerable debate, the program manager reduced the number of decoys planned for intercept flight tests in response to a recommendation by an independent panel. The Phase One Engineering Team, which was responsible for completing an assessment of TRW's software performance within two months using available data, found that although the software had weaknesses, it was well designed and worked properly, with only some changes needed to increase the robustness of the discrimination function. On the basis of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To improve federal debt collection, the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 established a framework of debt collection tools, including administrative wage garnishment (AWG). This report discusses the extent to which nine agencies use or plan to use AWG to collect delinquent nontax federal debt and provides GAO's perspective on ways to make AWG more widespread and effective. GAO found that none of the nine agencies had yet implemented AWG. Although AWG is not mandatory, by failing to use this tool--more than five years after the act's enactment and more than three years after the Department of the Treasury issued implementing regulations--agencies have missed an opportunity to maximize collection of delinquent debt. Agencies identified various reasons for not yet implementing AWG or for deciding not to do so, including the need to focus their resources on implementing the act's mandatory provisions. Although some agencies or programs may have valid reasons for not implementing wage garnishment, all of the larger programs that deal with individuals and that have a demonstrated risk of financial loss resulting from unpaid debt should have AWG as a viable debt collection option. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1998 to bring most federally funded employment and training services into a single, one one-stop center system. GAO assessed three programs that provide service through this system. States and localities have begun to implement the new performance measurement system for the three WIA-funded programs but report several challenges. States had to change the way they collected and reported performance data. They also faced challenges in implementing these measures due to their complexity and the resource demands created by new measures. Some developed new procedures to obtain access to sensitive records. The performance levels are of particular concern to state and local officials because failure to meet them can result in financial sanctions. As a result, states may be choosing to serve only those job seekers who are most likely to be successful. Even when fully implemented, performance measures may not provide a true picture of WIA-funded program performance because data are neither comparable across states nor timely. The measures include many of the indicators relevant to an employment and training program, such as getting and keeping jobs and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To help states administer their Food Stamp Programs, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) offers options and waivers to their program rules and regulations. Almost all states used options or waivers in their food stamp eligibility determination process. More than half of the states chose to make households receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services automatically eligible for food stamps. Thirty-three states exempted some or all vehicles in the determination of food stamp eligibility. Although most states used these options and waivers, they considered them a cumbersome way to increase access to the program for families owning a vehicle. Almost all states used at least one option or waiver to change the reporting methods required of food stamp household earnings. The most frequently used reporting waivers exempted recipients from reporting changes in earned income of $25 or more per month. States used these options and waivers to simplify paperwork requirements for both the food stamp recipient and eligibility worker. Although few states were using the new option to provide food stamp benefits to families leaving TANF, 20 other states planned to implement the option. No …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Workforce Investment Act, local workforce areas are likely to offer dislocated workers services that are tailored to local needs and that emphasize a quick return to employment. Nine of the local workforce areas that GAO visited emphasized a quick return to work and enrolled fewer dislocated workers into training than were enrolled under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Five local areas enrolled into training an equal or greater number of dislocated workers than were enrolled under JTPA. States used the act's flexibility to decide how much of their set-aside funds to spend on rapid response for dislocated workers and how much to spend on other statewide activities. Most of the 50 states that responded to a GAO survey on rapid response activities said that their state unit provided services when layoffs and plant closings involved 50 or more workers and that the state generally relied on local workforce area officials to provide rapid response services for layoffs affecting fewer workers. Workforce officials in several states expressed concern that the act's dislocated worker funding formula causes dramatic fluctuations in funding that are unrelated to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) Medicare subvention demonstration tested alternate approaches to health care coverage for military retirees. Retirees could enroll in new DOD-run Medicare managed care plans, known as TRICARE Senior Prime, at six sites. The demonstration plan offered enrollees the full range of Medicare-covered services as well as additional TRICARE services, with minimal copayments. During the demonstration period, the program parameters were changed, allowing military retirees age 65 and older to become eligible for TRICARE coverage as of October 1, 2001, and Senior Prime was extended for one year. The demonstration showed that retirees were interested in enrolling in low-cost military health plans and that DOD was able to satisfy its Senior Prime enrollees. By the close of the initial demonstration period, about 33,000 retirees were enrolled in Senior Prime, and more were on waiting lists. When nonenrollees were asked why they did not join Senior Prime, more than 60 percent said that they were satisfied with their existing health coverage; few said that they disliked military care. Although the demonstration had positive results for enrollees, it also highlighted three challenges confronting the military …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Nonresponse follow-up--in which Census Bureau enumerators go door-to-door to count individuals who have not mailed back their questionnaires--was the most costly and labor intensive of all 2000 Census operations. According to Bureau data, labor, mileage, and administrative costs totaled $1.4 billion, or 22 percent of the $6.5 billion allocated for the 2000 Census. Several practices were critical to the Bureau's timely competition of nonresponse follow-up. The Bureau (1) had an aggressive outreach and promotion campaign, simplified questionnaire, and other efforts to boost the mail response rate and thus reduce the Bureau's nonresponse follow-up workload; (2) used a flexible human capital strategy that enabled it to meet its national recruiting and hiring goals and position enumerators where they were most needed; (3) called on local census offices to identify local enumeration challenges, such as locked apartment buildings and gated communities, and to develop action plans to address them; and (4) applied ambitious interim "stretch" goals that encouraged local census offices to finish 80 percent of their nonresponse follow-up workload within the first four weeks and be completely finished by the end of the eighth week, as opposed …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audited the Bureau of Public Debt's Schedule of Federal Debt for fiscal years 2001 and 2000. GAO found that (1) the Schedules of Federal Debt were presented fairly, in all material respects, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles; (2) the Bureau had effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations related to the Schedule of Federal Debt for fiscal year 2001; and (3) there was no reportable noncompliance in fiscal year 2001 with a selected provision of a law GAO tested."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The number of people applying for benefits from the Social Security Administration's (SSA) two disability programs grew dramatically during the 1990s. As a result, the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Programs began to experience huge backlogs of undecided claims. SSA has spent $39 million during the past seven years on various initiatives to help it better manage its caseloads and ensure high-quality service. SSA spent another $71 million to develop an automated disability claims process. This report reviews the status and outcomes of five initiatives intended to improve SSA's disability claims process. GAO found that the results of the initiatives have been disappointing."