Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "We reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Conference of State Societies, Washington, DC, for fiscal years 2001 and 2000. GAO's review disclosed no reportable instances of noncompliance with the financial reporting requirements of the law. The audit reports included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly on the cash basis of accounting."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In early January 2003, we initiated a review of the Defense Integrated Military Human Resource System (DIMHRS) to get an understanding of the program, its goals, its present status, and the problems it is designed to resolve. During this review, we became aware that in April 2003 the Department of Defense (DOD) authorized the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) to initiate a pilot project to demonstrate its ability to develop an interim military pay system, called Forward Compatible Military Pay, before DIMHRS is fully operational. DFAS maintains that an interim system should be developed as soon as possible for two reasons: (1) the planned personnel and pay system that DOD is currently developing as part of the larger DIMHRS will be implemented later than its projected target date of December 2006 and (2) the current military pay system--the Defense Joint Military Pay System--is aging, unresponsive, and fragile and has become a major impediment to efficient and high quality customer service. It is estimated that the Forward Compatible Military Pay system could be operational by March 2006 at a design and development cost ranging from about $17 million …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Federation of Music Clubs, for fiscal year 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit reports included the auditors' opinion that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent scandals involving corporations, company executives, and accounting, law, and investment banking firms heightened awareness of abusive tax shelters and highlighted the importance of the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) addressing them. During 1999, Treasury issued a report indicating that abusive shelters were a large and growing problem, involving billions of dollars of tax reductions. Treasury was concerned that abusive shelters could ultimately undermine the integrity of the voluntary compliance tax system. GAO's statement today is based on work done at the request of the Chairman and the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Finance to examine IRS's strategy for dealing with abusive tax shelters. In reporting on abusive shelters, GAO is describing (1) their nature and scope; (2) IRS's strategy and enforcement mechanisms to combat them and the performance goals and measures IRS uses to track its major effort in that area; and (3) the decision-making process IRS used and the plans it has to devote more resources to addressing abusive shelters."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In May 2003, the Bush Administration proposed amending the legislation that currently restricts foreign ownership of U.S. airlines, raising the allowable percentage of total foreign ownership of voting stock in U.S. airlines from 25 to 49 percent. The Department of Transportation (DOT) suggested that implementing this amendment could provide significant benefits to U.S. consumers and airlines, particularly by providing access to additional capital, which would help the financial health of the industry. DOT and the Department of State also maintain that these new limitations would bring the United States in line with current foreign ownership laws of the European Union (EU). Concerned about the effect that changes in foreign ownership and control requirements might have on the aviation industry, national interests, and consumers--and recognizing that we examined this issue in 1992 when DOT earlier proposed increasing the level of foreign ownership--the Subcommittee on Aviation, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation asked us to discuss two related topics: (1) current proposals to revise U.S. limits on foreign ownership and control, including information on current shareholders and past examples of efforts by foreign interests to purchase significant equity in …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 that authorized certain Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the act requires the Comptroller General to report every 6 months on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. The reports are to contain a breakdown of the number of Haitians who applied and the number who were approved as asylum applicants, parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, or abandoned children; or as the eligible dependents of these applicants, including spouses, children, and unmarried sons or daughters. Reports are to be provided until all applications have been finally adjudicated. This is our tenth report."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report supplements our previous report responding to a Congressional request for current information on the representation of minorities and women at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). USPS's program to attract and award contracts to small, minority, and women-owned businesses is referred to as supplier diversity. In recent years, the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has questioned the reliability of data related to the Supplier Diversity Program, such as the dollar value of contracts awarded to small, minority, and women-owned businesses. In a September 2001 report, the OIG made nine recommendations that it said would improve the reliability of this data. Our objective was to determine the status of USPS efforts to address the recommendations contained in the OIG report. To address our objective, we obtained, reviewed, and analyzed documentation from USPS and interviewed USPS and OIG officials concerning the status of these recommendations."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Grand Coulee Dam was constructed on the Columbia River in northeastern Washington State from 1933 to 1942. The reservoir behind the dam covers land on the Colville Reservation along the Columbia River and land on the adjacent Spokane Reservation along both the Columbia and Spokane rivers. Under a 1940 act, the federal government paid $63,000 and $4,700 to the Colville and Spokane tribes, respectively, for the land used for the dam and reservoir. Subsequently, the Colville tribes pursued additional claims for their lost fisheries and for "water power values" and in 1994 were awarded a lump sum payment of $53 million and, beginning in 1996, annual payments that have ranged between $14 million to $21 million. The Spokane tribe is currently pursuing similar claims. S. 1438, introduced in July 2003, is a proposed legislative settlement for the Spokane tribe's claims. While settlement proposals introduced in the 106th and 107th Congresses directed the settlement costs to be split between Bonneville and the Treasury, S. 1438 provides that the settlement be paid entirely from the Treasury. This statement for the record addresses the (1) impact of …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed the procedures requested by the Secretary of the Senate to assist in determining whether the Senate Office of Public Records revolving fund's reported fiscal year 2001 through 2002 receipts and disbursements and fund balances at the beginning and the end of the review period are complete and accurate. The procedures included reviewing documentation supporting the the Senate Office of Public Records revolving fund's recorded receipt and disbursement transactions for evidence that the transactions were properly authorized, recorded, and reported on the Senate Disbursing Office's monthly Statement of Funding Authorization and Expense Activity reports. In addition, we reviewed the fund balance at the beginning and end of the fiscal years under review. As a result of performing agreed-upon procedures, we identified on instance in which a cash disbursement was not forwarded to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration prior to payment. This occurred during the displacement of staff from Senate Disbursing Office as a result of the anthrax incident in the fall of 2001. Additionally, we found that the beginning and ending fund balances for fiscal years 2001 and 2002 recorded in the Senate Disbursing Office's …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During the Senate Armed Services Committee's September 4, 2003 hearing on the Department of Defense's (DOD) proposed lease of 100 Boeing KC-767A aerial refueling aircraft, Congress expressed concern about a significant "bow-wave" funding requirement in future years to pay for leasing and then buying these 100 aircraft at the end of their leases, while continuing efforts to modernize the remainder of the tanker fleet. Subsequently, Congress requested that DOD analyze the option of leasing 25 aircraft, followed by a procurement of the remaining 75 aircraft. The Deputy Secretary of Defense responded to the request on September 22, 2003, identifying several alternative acquisition strategies, with associated cost and savings estimates. On September 25, 2003, Congress asked that GAO review the DOD response and assess the validity of the department's assumptions and the accuracy of the cost and savings estimates, and identify any other alternative acquisition strategies that the Committee should consider. This letter responds to that request."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "We reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Ski Patrol System, Incorporated, for fiscal years 2002 and 2001. GAO's review disclosed no reportable instances of noncompliance with the financial reporting requirements of the law. 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 "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Navy Club of the United States of America for fiscal years 2002 and 2001. 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."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In July 2001, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) issued the GAO/PCIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM). In April 2003, we issued an update to the FAM. The FAM provides guidance for performing financial statement audits of federal entities. The FAM is a key tool for enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources. GAO and the PCIE are committed to keeping the FAM current. With this goal in mind,we are now requesting comments on an exposure draft that will revise the Checklist for Reports Prepared Under the CFO Act (CFO Checklist). This update will replace the current CFO Checklist in the FAM Volume II, Section 1004. Once finalized,the updated CFO Checklist will be designated in the FAM Volume II at section 1050."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS), beneficiaries can be responsible for paying 50 percent or more of the total payment for outpatient services they receive in hospitals. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) introduced a mechanism to gradually decrease beneficiary cost sharing to 20 percent of the payment rate for each hospital outpatient service. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule that implemented, effective with the 2002 payment rates, a methodology for calculating copayment amounts that was designed to ensure that even as certain changes affect the payment rates for hospital outpatient services over time, beneficiary coinsurance for services would eventually be 20 percent of the total payment rate for each service. Under this 2002 methodology, the copayment amount for each outpatient payment group of services, called an ambulatory payment classification (APC) group, could not increase from year to year, and the beneficiary coinsurance percentage would remain the same or decrease, eventually reaching 20 percent for each APC. When CMS published the final rule updating the OPPS payment rates for 2003, the agency stated that it used the methodology …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation for fiscal years 2002 and 2001. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit reports included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly with generally accepted accounting standards."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes GAO-02-762G, Benefit System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, September 2002. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA) requires, among other things, that agencies implement and maintain financial management systems that substantially comply with federal financial management system requirements. These requirements are detailed in the Federal Financial Management System Requirements series issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) and in the guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Circular A-127, Financial Management Systems, and the January 4, 2001, Revised Implementation Guidance for the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996. JFMIP intends for the requirements to promote understanding of key financial management systems concepts and requirements, to provide a framework for establishing integrated financial management systems to support program and financial managers, and to describe specific requirements of financial management systems. We are issuing this checklist, which reflects JFMIP's Benefit System (JFMIP-SR-01-01, September 2001), to assist (1) agencies in implementing and monitoring their benefit systems and (2) managers and auditors in reviewing their benefit systems to determine if they substantially comply …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs requested GAO's views on various competitive sourcing issies, including the recent revisions made by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to its Circular A-76. GAO answered questions on (1) making "best value" instead of "lowest cost" the factor that agencies must use in determining who will win a public-private competition; (2) agencies' capability to effectively manage public-private competitions and overseeing contracts; and (3) whether the 12-month time limit placed on competitions in the revised OMB Circular A-76 is appropriate and how much of the time taken to conduct competitions in the past was used to do things that could be handled before the competition begins."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (Fund) is a $1 billion fund authorized by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) to pay for (1) federal removal actions, (2) certain claims for uncompensated removal costs and damages,and (3) natural resource damage and restoration activities resulting from oil spills or the substantial threat of oil spills to the waters or shorelines of the United States. The Fund is administered by the National Pollution Funds Center (NPFC) of the U.S. Coast Guard. In May 2002, our Office of General Counsel reported on legal issues and limitations of the Fund and concluded that certain administrative costs were inappropriately being paid out of the Fund. In light of this conclusion, we reviewed the internal controls over disbursements from the Fund. Specifically, we reviewed the Fund to determine whether (1) the design of internal controls over the claims process provides reasonable assurance that improper payments will not occur or will be detected in the normal course of business and (2) internal controls over the claims process are operating as designed to help ensure proper payment of claims."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Italian American War Veterans of the United States for fiscal years 2002, 2001 and 2000. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance with the financial reporting requirements. The audit report included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly on the cash basis of accounting."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In February 2002, the President reaffirmed a previous U.S. commitment to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at a level designed to prevent dangerous human interference with the earth's climate. At the same time, he announced a Global Climate Change Initiative to reduce the rate of increase of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States between 2002 and 2012. Specifically, he established the goal of reducing the "emissions intensity" of the U.S. economy by 18 percent, a reduction 4 percentage points greater than would be expected absent any new policy. Congress asked us to describe how U.S. emissions and emissions intensity compare to the world's other highest emitters. Specifically, this report focuses on (1) how greenhouse gas emissions and the emissions intensity of the United States and the nine nations with the next-highest emissions changed from 1980 to 2000, (2) how such emissions and the emissions intensities of the same nations are expected to change between 2001 and 2025, and (3) how meeting the administration's goal of reducing emissions intensity by 18 percent would affect cumulative U.S. emissions between 2002 and 2012."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, for fiscal year 2002. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit reports included the auditors' opinion that, with one exception, the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government faces longstanding problems with excess and underutilized real property, deteriorating facilities, unreliable real property data, and costly space. These problems have multibillion-dollar cost implications and can seriously jeopardize agencies' missions. In addition, federal agencies face many challenges securing real property due to the threat of terrorism. This testimony discusses long-standing, complex problems in the federal real property area and what actions are needed to address them."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Higher Education Act of 1965 gives special recognition to some postsecondary schools--called Minority Serving Institutions--that serve a high percentage of minority students. These and other schools face stiff challenges in keeping pace with technology. One rapidly growing area, distance education, has commanded particular attention and an estimated 1.5 million students have enrolled in at least one distance education course. In light of this, GAO was asked to provide information on: (1) the use of distance education by Minority Serving Institutions; (2) the challenges Minority Serving Institutions face in obtaining and using technology; (3) GAO's preliminary finding on the role that accrediting agencies play in ensuring the quality of distance education; and (4) GAO's preliminary findings on whether statutory requirements limit federal aid to students involved in distance education. GAO is currently finalizing the results of its work on (1) the role of accrediting agencies in reviewing distance education programs and (2) federal student financial aid issues related to distance education."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has faced persistent challenges in managing its grants, which, at about $4 billion annually constitute over one-half of the agency's total budget. EPA awards grants to thousands of recipients to implement its programs to protect human health and the environment. Given the size and diversity of EPA's programs, its ability to efficiently and effectively accomplish its mission largely depends on how well it manages its grant resources and builds accountability into its efforts. In our comprehensive report on EPA's management of its grants, released last week, we found that EPA continues to face four key grants management challenges despite past efforts to address them--(1) selecting the most qualified grant applicants, (2) effectively overseeing grantees, (3) measuring the results of grants, and (4) effectively managing its grant staff and resources. The report also discusses EPA's latest competition and oversight policies and its new 5-year plan to improve the management of its grants. This testimony, based on our report, focuses on the extent to which EPA's latest policies and plan address (1) awarding grants competitively, (2) improving oversight of grantees, and (3) holding staff and …