A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Army Materiel Command (AMC) is using the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) Increment 1 to support its industrial operations, but additional development is necessary, according to the Army, because the current system does not support certain critical requirements, including enabling the Army to generate auditable financial statements by fiscal year 2017. Officials at the 14 AMC sites GAO visited stated that LMP provided the core functionality they needed to support their operations and that they are improving in their ability to use the system. Additionally, some sites have locally developed tools to augment LMP capabilities. Army officials stated that although LMP is functional, it currently does not support certain critical requirements that have emerged since its initial development, such as automatically tracking repair and manufacturing operations on the shop floor of depots and arsenals. In addition, according to Army officials, the current system will not enable the Army to generate auditable financial statements by 2017, the statutory deadline for this goal. Increment 2, which is estimated to cost $730 million through fiscal year 2026, is expected to address these shortcomings. The Army is in the process …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Information technology (IT) acquisition best practices have been developed by both industry and the federal government. For example, the Software Engineering Institute has developed highly regarded and widely used guidance on best practices, such as requirements development and management, risk management, validation and verification, and project monitoring and control. GAO's own research in IT management best practices led to the development of the Information Technology Investment Management Framework, which describes essential and complementary IT investment management disciplines, such as oversight of system development and acquisition management, and organizes them into a set of critical processes for successful investments."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the 66 old federal courthouses that GAO reviewed, the General Services Administration (GSA) retained 40, disposed of 25, and is in the process of disposing of another. Of the retained old courthouses, the judiciary occupies 30 of them, 25 as the main tenant, most commonly with the district and bankruptcy courts. When determining whether to retain and reuse or to dispose of old courthouses, GSA considers, among other things, a building's condition, the local real estate market, and the existing and projected base of federal tenants. GSA officials said that after the judiciary moves to new courthouses, old courthouses often require renovations to be reused. Moreover, GSA officials said that it can be challenging to find new tenants for old courthouses due to the buildings' condition and needed renovations, among other reasons. Among the retained old courthouses GAO reviewed, excluding one building that was under major renovation, about 14 percent of the total space (nearly 1-million square feet) in them was vacant as of May 2013--significantly higher than the 4.8 percent overall vacant space in federally-owned buildings in 2012."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had made considerable progress toward obtaining a clean opinion on its financial statements. For example, DHS reduced the number of audit qualifications from 11 in 2005 to 1 in 2010. DHS is working to resolve the deficiencies in the U.S. Coast Guard's (USCG) ability to complete certain reconciliations and provide evidence supporting certain components of general property, plant, and equipment and heritage and stewardship assets that caused DHS's auditors to issue a qualified opinion on its fiscal year 2012 financial statements. DHS has a goal of achieving a clean opinion for fiscal year 2013. However, the DHS auditors' report for fiscal year 2012, the most recently completed audit, indicated that DHS continues to rely on compensating controls and complex manual work-arounds to support its financial reporting, rather than sound internal control and effective financial management systems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In five selected states, GAO determined that the separate State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans were generally comparable to the benchmark plans selected by states in 2012 as models for the benefits that will be offered through qualified health plans (QHP) in 2014. The plans were comparable in the services they covered and the services on which they imposed limits, although there was some variation. For example, in coverage of hearing and outpatient therapy services, the benchmark plan in one of the five states--Kansas--did not cover hearing aids nor hearing tests, while the CHIP plans in all states covered at least one of these services. Similarly, two states' CHIP plans and three states' benchmark plans did not cover certain outpatient therapies--known as habilitative services--to help individuals attain or maintain skills they had not learned due to a disability. States' CHIP and benchmark state plans were also similar in terms of the services on which they imposed day, visit, or dollar limits. Plans most commonly imposed limits on outpatient therapies and pediatric dental, vision, and hearing services. Officials in all five states expect that CHIP coverage, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Census Bureau (Bureau) is not producing reliable schedules for the two programs most relevant to building the Master Address File (MAF)--the 2020 Research and Testing program and the Geographic Support System Initiative."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO determined that the Department of Defense’s (DOD) March and June 2013 submissions on establishing a Defense Health Agency (DHA) to reform the governance of the Military Health System (MHS) met three statutory requirements to include information on goals, performance measures, and staffing; partially met one requirement to include information on timelines; and was not required to include information on shared services because the reporting time frame was not applicable. GAO also assessed the submissions to determine the extent to which DOD incorporated key management practices from GAO’s prior work on business-process reengineering. DOD’s submissions provided some useful information but did not fully incorporate some key management practices as explained below."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Navy has experienced significant quality problems with several ship classes over the past several years. It has focused on reducing the number of serious deficiencies at the time of delivery, and GAO's analysis shows that the number of deficiencies--particularly "starred" deficiencies designated as the most serious for operational or safety reasons--has generally dropped. Nonetheless, the Navy continues to accept ships with large numbers of open deficiencies. Accepting ships with large numbers of uncorrected deficiencies is a standard practice and GAO found that there are varying interpretations of Navy policy with regard to when the defects should be resolved. In 2009, the Navy organization that oversees ship construction launched the Back to Basics initiative to improve Navy oversight of ship construction. However, a key output of the initiative promoting consistent and adequate quality requirements in Navy contracts has yet to be implemented."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Available evidence does not support whether behavioral indicators, which are used in the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security. GAO reviewed four meta-analyses (reviews that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that included over 400 studies from the past 60 years and found that the human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance. Further, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) April 2011 study conducted to validate SPOT's behavioral indicators did not demonstrate their effectiveness because of study limitations, including the use of unreliable data. Twenty-one of the 25 behavior detection officers (BDO) GAO interviewed at four airports said that some behavioral indicators are subjective. TSA officials agree, and said they are working to better define them. GAO analyzed data from fiscal years 2011 and 2012 on the rates at which BDOs referred passengers for additional screening based on behavioral indicators and found that BDOs' referral rates varied significantly across airports, raising questions about …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Eighty-four percent of the autism research projects funded by federal agencies had the potential to be duplicative. Of the 1,206 autism research projects funded by federal agencies from fiscal years 2008 through 2012, 1,018 projects were potentially duplicative because the projects were categorized to the same objectives in the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee's (IACC) strategic plan. Funding similar research on the same topic is sometimes appropriate--for example, for purposes of replicating or corroborating results--but in some instances, funding similar research may lead to unnecessary duplication. The potentially duplicative research projects included those funded by the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Education (Education), National Science Foundation (NSF), and agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)--Administration for Children and Families, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Each agency funded at least 1 autism research project in the same strategic plan objective as another agency. For example, 5 agencies awarded approximately $15.2 million …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program targets small businesses for federal research or research and development funding to develop and commercialize innovative technologies. The Small Business Administration (SBA), which oversees the program, is in the process of amending the provisions of the SBIR policy directive that pertain to small businesses retaining the rights to data they generate in the performance of an SBIR award for not less than 4 years. Because the update to the policy directive has a bearing on the issue of whether laws and policy directives are sufficient to protect SBIR awardees, GAO will study the SBIR data rights issues, as mandated in 2012 by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), once SBA has completed that update, which SBA officials estimate will be in late 2013 or early 2014."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2013, GAO reported that (1) peer-reviewed, published research we reviewed did not support whether nonverbal behavioral indicators can be used to reliably identify deception, (2) methodological issues limited the usefulness of DHS's April 2011 SPOT validation study, and (3) variation in referral rates raised questions about the use of indicators. GAO reported that its review of meta-analyses (studies that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that included findings from over 400 studies related to detecting deception conducted over the past 60 years, other academic and government studies, and interviews with experts in the field, called into question the use of behavior observation techniques, that is, human observation unaided by technology, as a means for reliably detecting deception. The meta-analyses GAO reviewed collectively found that the ability of human observers to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral cues or indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance (54 percent). GAO also reported on other studies that do not support the use of behavioral indicators to identify mal-intent or threats to aviation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To assess the risks and potential effects from disruptions in the Global Positioning System (GPS) on critical infrastructure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the GPS National Risk Estimate (NRE) in 2012. In doing so, DHS conducted a scenario-based risk assessment for four critical infrastructure sectors using subject matter experts from inside and outside of government. Risk assessments involve complex analysis, and conducting a risk assessment across multiple sectors with many unknowns and little data is challenging. DHS's risk management guidance can be used to help address such challenges. However, we found the NRE lacks key characteristics of risk assessments outlined in DHS's risk management guidance and, as a result, is incomplete and has limited usefulness to inform mitigation planning, priorities, and resource allocation. A plan to collect and assess additional data and subsequent efforts to ensure that the risk assessment is consistent with DHS guidance would contribute to more effective GPS risk management."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Between fiscal years 2009 and 2013, the total number of funded positions--both full-time support and part-time--at the Department of Defense's (DOD) 75 Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve (Reserves) component headquarters grew from about 30,200 to 31,900 positions (about 6 percent overall). Some organizations grew more markedly, among them the National Guard Bureau (17 percent); Army National Guard Directorate (44 percent); Air National Guard Readiness Center (21 percent); and the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve (45 percent). DOD officials attribute growth to the conversion of contractor workload into civilian positions and increased missions assigned at certain headquarters. Over the same period, staff levels at the National Guard's 54 state Joint Force headquarters remained flat and the Air Force Reserve shrank by 4 percent."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 10 federal information technology (IT) operations and maintenance (O&M) investments with the largest budgets in fiscal year 2012—and the eight agencies that operate them—are identified by GAO in the table below. They support agencies by providing, for example, global telecommunications infrastructure and information transport services for the Department of Defense."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Spending reductions under sequestration affected DOD’s civilian workforce and many programs and functions, and required DOD to accept some risk in maintaining the readiness of military forces. However, DOD was able to mitigate some near-term effects of sequestration on its mission. Reduced spending levels required DOD to take actions such as furloughing most civilian employees for 6 days, cancelling or curtailing training for units that were not preparing to deploy by early in 2014, postponing some planned equipment maintenance at its depots and repairs or renovations of facilities, reducing some weapon system quantities or deferring modifications, and delaying system development and testing. DOD took various actions to plan for and implement sequestration, such as issuing guidance and establishing processes to identify priorities and evaluate alternatives for spending reductions. Generally, DOD’s approach to sequestration was a short-term response focused on addressing the immediate funding reductions for fiscal year 2013. DOD was able to reduce spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 without making permanent changes, such as adjusting the size of its forces or canceling weapon systems programs. By setting priorities for funding and using available prior …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, agencies prepared Hurricane Sandy disaster relief internal control plans based on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance but did not consistently apply the guidance in preparing these plans. OMB Memorandum M-13-07 (M-13-07), Accountability for Funds Provided by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, directed federal agencies to provide a description of incremental risks they identified for Sandy disaster relief funding as well as an internal control strategy for mitigating these risks. Each of the 19 agencies responsible for the 61 programs receiving funds under the act submitted an internal control plan with specific program details using a template provided by OMB. Agencies' plans ranged from providing most of the required information to not providing any information on certain programs. For example, each of the 61 programs was required to discuss its protocol for improper payments; however, GAO found that 38 programs included this information, 11 included partial information, and 12 included no information."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration (SSA) receives death reports from multiple sources, including state vital records agencies (states), family members, and other federal agencies to create its set of death records. In accordance with the Social Security Act (Act), SSA shares its full set of death data with certain agencies that pay federally-funded benefits, for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy of those payments. For other users of SSA's death data, SSA extracts a subset of records into a file called the Death Master File (DMF), which, to comply with the Act, excludes state-reported death data. SSA makes the DMF available via the Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service, from which any member of the public can purchase DMF data. Certain procedures that SSA uses for collecting, verifying, and maintaining death reports could result in erroneous or untimely death information. For example, SSA does not independently verify all reports before including them in its death records. In accordance with its policy, the agency only verifies death reports for Social Security beneficiaries in order to stop benefit payments, and then, verifies only those reports from sources it …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) and the General Services Administration (GSA)--which accounted for more than 80 percent of the consolidated contracts reported by all federal agencies in fiscal years 2011 and 2012--do not know the full extent to which they are awarding consolidated contracts. This is the result of contracts being misreported in the federal procurement data system. GAO reviewed 157 contracts--more than half of all DOD and GSA contracts that were reported as consolidated--and found that 34 percent of the DOD contracts and all of the GSA contracts in fact were not consolidated. GAO also identified four DOD contracts with consolidated requirements that were not reported as such."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) grantees reported providing services similar to the medical services, support services, and HIV testing and prevention services provided with core HIV/AIDS funding, which is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to grantees. In addition, MAI grantees faced administrative challenges managing HIV/AIDS funding that was fragmented across several grants. Various agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded MAI grants to grantees. The agencies included CDC, HRSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and seven other offices within HHS. The MAI grantees in GAO's sample reported providing mostly support services with their MAI grants, similar to the types of support services grantees provided with core HIV/AIDS funding from CDC and HRSA. These support services included community outreach and education, and staff or provider training. Twenty percent of the grantees also reported providing medical services to their clients. According to the limited data HHS agencies and offices maintain on the demographics of the population served with MAI grants, the majority of recipients of MAI services were from …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) was directed by the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations to provide a report on the results of a review to streamline the processes for coordinating and sharing information with its critical infrastructure (CI) protection partners. GAO was unable to assess the extent to which NPPD's streamlining efforts were designed to ensure progress in four areas--mission clarity, useful and actionable work products, efficacy of planning and information sharing, and cost savings--because DHS's response does not discuss NPPD efforts to streamline those processes. Specifically, GAO's analysis of DHS's response showed that DHS provided information on NPPD efforts to coordinate and share information with its public and private partners (e.g., CI owners and operators) and the results of some of those efforts but did not provide information about any NPPD efforts to streamline the processes for coordination and information sharing. For example, DHS's response includes a section on coordinating and executing plans--one of the five topic areas that NPPD was required to include in its report--that describes who NPPD's partners are and ways that NPPD coordinates and executes …

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2012, GAO reported that 80 federal programs in eight different agencies fund a variety of transportation services for transportation-disadvantaged populations, which include older Americans. Within the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is a key source of federal transportation funding for older Americans. For example, some FTA programs provide formula funding to states to serve transit-dependent populations with special needs. States typically distribute these funds to local nonprofit human service agencies to buy vehicles to transport older adults and people with disabilities, and the funds may support transportation to access a range of activities, such as grocery shopping. While some federal funding programs are transportation focused, transportation was not the primary mission for the vast majority of the 80 programs GAO identified in 2012. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services' Medicaid program reimburses states that provide Medicaid beneficiaries with bus passes, among other transportation options, to access eligible medical services. Total federal spending on transportation services for the transportation disadvantaged remains unknown because federal departments did not separately track spending for roughly two-thirds of the programs identified in …