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Purchase Cards: Navy Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse but Is Taking Action to Resolve Control Weaknesses (open access)

Purchase Cards: Navy Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse but Is Taking Action to Resolve Control Weaknesses

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For a number of years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been promoting departmentwide use of purchase cards, and their use has dramatically increased. DOD reported that in fiscal year 2001, more than 230,000 civilian and military cardholders made 10.7 million purchase card transactions valued at more than $6.1 billion. The Navy has the second largest purchase card program in DOD. As was previously reported, there were significant breakdowns in internal control at two Navy sites that left those units vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. These weaknesses are representative of systematic Navy-wide purchase card control weaknesses that have left Navy vulnerable to fraudulent, wasteful, and abusive use of purchase cards. Since the original report, the Navy has been taking actions to improve the purchase card control environment and improve cardholder adherence to key purchase card control procedures. The Navy has also taken more aggressive actions to identify fraudulent, improper, and abusive or questionable purchase card acquisitions."
Date: October 8, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Homeland Security: OMB's Temporary Cessation of Information Technology Funding for New Investments (open access)

Homeland Security: OMB's Temporary Cessation of Information Technology Funding for New Investments

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the temporary cessation of funding for new information technology (IT) infrastructure and business system investments related to the proposed Department of Homeland Security. Integrating the diverse communication and information systems of the myriad of organizations that would be part of the proposed Department of Homeland Security would be an enormous undertaking. Among the near-term challenges that would have to be addressed to successfully tackle this task is developing an enterprise architecture. Managed properly, enterprise architectures can clarify and help optimize the interdependencies and interrelationships among related enterprise operations and the underlying IT infrastructure and applications that support them. Another long-term challenge is establishing and enforcing a disciplined IT investment management process. Well managed IT investments that are carefully selected and focused on meeting mission needs can propel an organization forward, dramatically improving performance while reducing costs. To help tackle these challenges, in July the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued two memoranda to selected agencies telling them to "cease temporarily" and report on new IT infrastructure an business systems investments above $500,000, which are to be reviewed by IT infrastructure and business system investments …
Date: October 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chemical and Biological Defense: Observations on DOD's Risk Assessment of Defense Capabilities (open access)

Chemical and Biological Defense: Observations on DOD's Risk Assessment of Defense Capabilities

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) believes it is increasingly likely that an adversary of the United States will use chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces to degrade superior U.S. conventional warfare capabilities, placing service members' lives and effective military operations at risk. During the past 6 years, GAO has identified many problems with DOD's capabilities to defend against chemical and biological weapons and sustain operations in the midst of their use. Although GAO has found that DOD has made some improvements--in equipment, training, and reporting, and in the coordination of research and development activities--it has continuing concerns in each of these areas. One particular issue is the supply of chemical protective clothing and the way associated risk is assessed. Due to the upcoming expiration of existing protective suits, the slower rate at which new suits are entering the inventory, and DOD's method of assessing risk for individual items rather than complete protective ensembles, GAO believes that the risk for protective clothing shortages may increase dramatically from now through 2007. GAO is also concerned that certain management weaknesses, such as program organizational complexity and prolonged vacancies in key …
Date: October 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commercial Aviation: Financial Condition and Industry Responses Affect Competition (open access)

Commercial Aviation: Financial Condition and Industry Responses Affect Competition

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the economic state of the airline industry. Many, but not all, major U.S. passenger airlines are experiencing their second consecutive year of record financial losses. In 2001, the U.S. commercial passenger airline industry reported losses in excess of $6 billion. For 2002, some Wall Street analysts recently projected that U.S. airline industry losses will approach $7 billion, and noted that the prospects for recovery during 2003 are diminishing. Carriers have taken many actions to lower their costs and restructure their operations. Since September 2001, carriers have furloughed 100,000 staff, renegotiated labor contracts, and streamlined their fleets by retiring older, costlier aircraft. Carriers have reduced capacity by operating fewer flights or smaller aircraft. In some cases, carriers eliminated all service to communities. As the aviation industry continues its attempts to recover, Congress will be confronted with a need for increased oversight of a number of public policy issues. First, airlines' reactions to financial pressures will affect the domestic industry's competitive landscape. Second, airlines' reductions in service will likely place additional pressure on federal programs supporting air service to small communities, where travel options are already limited. …
Date: October 2, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Management: Survey of Capitalization Threshold and Other Policies for Property, Plant, and Equipment (open access)

Financial Management: Survey of Capitalization Threshold and Other Policies for Property, Plant, and Equipment

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In passing the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act and a range of other financial management reform legislation, Congress has sought to overcome the historical lack of reliable, useful, and timely information with which to make informed decisions, measure and control costs, manage for results, and ensure financial accountability on an ongoing basis. Reported capitalization threshold levels at the 14 agencies GAO surveyed ranged from zero to $250,000. Despite the sharp increase in the capitalization threshold, all but one of the 14 agencies responded that they maintained property records for the government's general property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) not capitalized on the balance sheet, citing safeguarding of PP&E and supporting agency operations as the key reasons for maintaining such information. Federal capitalization thresholds are significantly higher than those reported by the private sector entities GAO surveyed. In some cases, the federal capitalization thresholds for real property were up to 50 times higher than those noted in the private sector. In contrast to the wide variance between federal agency and private sector capitalization threshold policies, federal agency useful life policies were generally similar to those found in the …
Date: October 15, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Inventory: Better Reporting on Spare Parts Spending Will Enhance Congressional Oversight (open access)

Defense Inventory: Better Reporting on Spare Parts Spending Will Enhance Congressional Oversight

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked by the Department of Defense (DOD) to identify ways to improve DOD's availability of high-quality spare parts for aircraft, ships, vehicles, and weapons systems. DOD's recent reports do not provide an accurate and complete picture of spare parts funding as required by financial management regulation. As a result, the reports do not provide Congress with reasonable assurance about the amount of funds being spent on spare parts. Furthermore, the reports are of limited use to Congress as it makes decisions on how best to spend resources to reduce spare parts shortages and improve military readiness."
Date: October 24, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
2000 Census: Complete Costs of Coverage Evaluation Programs Are Not Available (open access)

2000 Census: Complete Costs of Coverage Evaluation Programs Are Not Available

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To assess the quality of the population data collected in the 2000 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau conducted the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) program, which focused on a survey of housing units designed to estimate the number of people missed, counted more than once, or otherwise improperly counted in the census. GAO reviewed the life cycle costs of the A.C.E. program and its predecessor, the Integrated Coverage Measurement (ICM) program. GAO found that the original estimated cycle costs of conducting the ICM/A.C.E. programs were $400 million. The first evidence for the original $400 million estimate is in the original budget justifications for fiscal year 2000. The bureau based its estimates of ICM/A.C.E. costs on assumptions about the needs for personnel and benefits, contractual services, travel, office space, equipment, and other costs necessary to conduct and support operations of the programs. The budgeted amounts that GAO identified from bureau records for conducting the ICM/A.C.E. programs are $277 million through fiscal year 2003. The obligated costs that GAO identified from bureau records for conducting the ICM/A.C.E. programs are $207 million through fiscal year 2001. $58 million of …
Date: October 31, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Army Logistics: Report on Manpower and Workload System Inadequate and System Interface Untested (open access)

Army Logistics: Report on Manpower and Workload System Inadequate and System Interface Untested

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "At the direction of the House Committee on National Security, the Army began developing the Army Workload and Performance System (AWPS) in 1996. This automated system was intended to address a number of specific weaknesses highlighted in several GAO and Army studies since 1994 regarding the Army's inability to support its civilian personnel requirements by using an analytically based workload forecasting system. Army's May 2002 report on AWPS does not provide Congress with adequate information to assess the Army's progress in implementing the system. Specifically, the 2002 plan does not include (1) a detailed summary of all costs that the Army has incurred, or the expenditures that it anticipates in the future, to develop and implement the system; (2) a list of the milestones that the Army has, or has not, achieved in the previous year and a list of milestones that are projected for the future; and (3) an evaluation of how well the system has performed to date in fulfilling its primary function--that is, of matching manpower needs with depot workloads. Although the Army has begun developing an interface between AWPS and the Logistics …
Date: October 30, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Prescription Drugs: FDA Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Has Limitations (open access)

Prescription Drugs: FDA Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Has Limitations

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Prescription drug spending increased at an annual rate of 18 percent from 1997 through 2001 and is the fastest growing component of health care spending in the United States. Among the many reasons cited for this increase are growth in the number of patients diagnosed with conditions that can be treated with pharmaceuticals and the development of innovative drugs for some conditions. Spending on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs has tripled in recent years. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the promotion of prescription drugs, including the content of DTC advertisements, under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The act sets general standards of for FDA's regulation of prescription drug advertising directed to consumers and physicians. Regulations implementing the act require that advertisements present accurate information and fairly represent both the benefits and the risks of the advertised drug. Pharmaceutical companies spend more on research and development initiatives than on all drug promotion activities, including DTC advertising. According to industry estimates, pharmaceutical companies spent $30.3 billion on research and development and $19.1 billion on all promotional activities, which includes $2.7 …
Date: October 28, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Statement Restatements: Trends, Market Impacts, Regulatory Responses, and Remaining Challenges (open access)

Financial Statement Restatements: Trends, Market Impacts, Regulatory Responses, and Remaining Challenges

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A number of well-publicized announcements about financial statement restatements by large, well-known public companies have erased billions of dollars of previously reported earnings and raised questions about the credibility of accounting practices and the quality of corporate financial disclosure and oversight in the United States. Industry officials and academics have speculated that several factors may have caused U.S. companies to use questionable accounting practices. Some officials have stated that increased focus and guidance by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on accounting issues in the late 1990s may have prompted more companies to restate previously reported financial statements. Although the number of restating companies continues to make up a small percentage of all publicly listed companies annually, the number of restatements due to accounting irregularities grew significantly--145 percent--from January 1997 through June 2002. The 845 restating companies GAO identified had restated their financial statements for many reasons--for example, to adjust revenue, costs or expenses, or to address securities-related issues. From January 1997 to June 2002, issues involving revenue recognition accounted for almost 38 percent of the 919 announced restatements. Finally, different parties can prompt a restatement, …
Date: October 4, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Invasive Species: Clearer Focus and Greater Commitment Needed to Effectively Manage the Problem (open access)

Invasive Species: Clearer Focus and Greater Commitment Needed to Effectively Manage the Problem

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Harmful invasive species--nonnative plants and animals that are spreading throughout the United States--have caused billions of dollars in damage to natural areas, businesses, and consumers. In 2001, the federal government issued a National Invasive Species Management Plan to focus attention on invasive species and coordinate a national control effort involving the 20 or so federal agencies that are responsible for managing them. This report discusses the economic impacts of invasive species, implementation of the management plan, and coordination of U.S. and Canadian efforts to control invasive species, including those introduced to the Great Lakes via the ballast water of ships."
Date: October 22, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
HUD Management: Impact Measurement Needed for Technical Assistance (open access)

HUD Management: Impact Measurement Needed for Technical Assistance

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Technical Assistance is an important means through which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can influence how its program funds are spent; this assistance can range from training workshops to one-on-one assistance. GAO was asked to determine how many HUD technical assistance programs Congress has authorized and their cost; why HUD offers technical assistance programs and who provides and receives the services; and whether HUD program offices are overseeing and measuring the impact of their technical assistance programs as required."
Date: October 25, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Building Security: Security Responsibilities for Federally Owned and Leased Facilities (open access)

Building Security: Security Responsibilities for Federally Owned and Leased Facilities

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to a Congressional request for information regarding critical infrastructure protection within the federal government. In May 1998, Presidential Decision Directive 63 was issued with the intent to eliminate any significant vulnerability to both physical and cyber attacks on the nation's critical infrastructure. It makes every department and agency of the federal government responsible for protecting its own critical physical infrastructure. The Interagency Security Committee (ISC) and all 22 of the agencies GAO reviewed have some role in providing security for office space, although the degree of involvement varied from agency to agency. Other types of security responsibilities include performing security assessments, providing security funding, providing security forces and security technology, and coordination of security efforts among and within agencies. Eleven of the 22 agencies stated that they had completed security assessments on all their facilities since 1995. Nine agencies reported that they were still doing security assessments on their buildings. Two agencies are located in General Service Administration (GSA) space only and GSA is responsible for the security assessments. The agencies provide security using a combination of security forces and security technologies. Security …
Date: October 31, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Medicare+Choice: Selected Program Requirements and Other Entities' Standards for HMOs (open access)

Medicare+Choice: Selected Program Requirements and Other Entities' Standards for HMOs

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the early 1980s, health maintenance organizations (HMO) have entered into risk-based contracts with Medicare and offered beneficiaries an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) program. By 1997, 5.2 million Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in an HMO. Although Medicare HMOs were available in most urban areas, they were often unavailable in rural areas. Medicare+Choice (M+C) has HMO requirements pertaining to benefit package proposals, the beneficiary enrollment process, marketing and enrollee communication materials, and quality improvement, among other areas. An HMO must annually submit a benefit package proposal to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for each M+C health plan that the HMO intends to offer. M+C requirements for the beneficiary enrollment process specify the information that an HMO must include in its enrollment application and the checks that it must perform to ensure that beneficiaries who submit applications are eligible to enroll in the HMO's health plan. M+C marketing requirements prohibit HMOs from using inaccurate or misleading language in advertisements or materials distributed to enrollees. M+C requirements for quality improvements specify that HMOs must undertake multiyear projects intended to improve the quality of health …
Date: October 31, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nonproliferation: Strategy Needed to Strengthen Multilateral Export Control Regimes (open access)

Nonproliferation: Strategy Needed to Strengthen Multilateral Export Control Regimes

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Multilateral export control regimes are consensus-based, voluntary arrangements of supplier countries that produce technologies useful in developing weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons. The regimes aim to restrict trade in these technologies to keep them from proliferating states or terrorists. The United States seeks to improve the effectiveness of these regimes. GAO was asked to (1) assess weaknesses of the four regimes and (2) identify obstacles faced in trying to strengthen them."
Date: October 25, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Health Insurance: States' Protections and Programs Benefit Some Unemployed Individuals (open access)

Health Insurance: States' Protections and Programs Benefit Some Unemployed Individuals

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The six states reviewed had in place a variety of protections, established prior to the economic downturn, to assist unemployed individuals in maintaining health insurance coverage: State-mandated continuation coverage, which required small businesses to extend their group health coverage to former employees and their families who choose to pay for it. Guaranteed conversion, which required insurers to allow eligible individuals to convert their group coverage to individual health insurance policies. Guaranteed issue, which required insurers to offer coverage to those who did not have access to group coverage or public insurance. High-risk pools, state-created associations that offered comprehensive health insurance benefits to individuals with acute or chronic health conditions. However, individuals usually bore the full cost of the premiums, which was usually higher than their premium cost under employer-sponsored plans. For individuals who relied on unemployment benefits as their principal income, premiums absorbed a significant share of the benefit."
Date: October 25, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Technology: Issues Affecting Cost Impact of Navy Marine Corps Intranet Need to Be Resolved (open access)

Information Technology: Issues Affecting Cost Impact of Navy Marine Corps Intranet Need to Be Resolved

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) contract, the Department of the Navy is obtaining information technology (IT) services that are to allow it to replace thousands of independent networks, applications, hardware, and software with one secure network. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2002 directed GAO to review the impact on IT costs of NMCI at Navy shipyards and air depots, which are predominantly working capital funded activities. Because this funding model requires these activities to recover all costs through charges to customers, GAO also reviewed NMCI's impact on shipyard and depot rates."
Date: October 31, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Management: FFMIA Implementation Necessary to Achieve Accountability (open access)

Financial Management: FFMIA Implementation Necessary to Achieve Accountability

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The ability to produce the data needed to efficiently and effectively manage the day-to-day operations of the federal government and provide accountability to taxpayers has been a long-standing challenge at most federal agencies. To help address this challenge, the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA) requires the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies to implement and maintain financial management systems that comply substantially with (1) federal system requirements, (2) federal accounting standards, and (3) the U.S. Government Standard General Ledger (SGL). FFMIA also requires GAO to report annually on the implementation of the act."
Date: October 1, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave Navy Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse (open access)

Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave Navy Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Department of the Navy's internal controls over the government travel card program. The Navy's average delinquency rate of 12 percent over the last 2 years is nearly identical to the Army's, which has the highest delinquency rate in the Department of Defense, and 6 percentage points higher than that of federal civilian agencies. The Navy's overall delinquency and charge-off problems, which have cost the Navy millions in lost rebates and higher fees, are primarily associated with lower-paid, enlisted military personnel. In addition, lack of management emphasis and oversight has resulted in management failure to promptly detect and address instances of potentially fraudulent and abusive activities related to the travel card program. During fiscal year 2001 and the first 6 months of fiscal year 2002, over 250 Navy personnel might have committed bank fraud by writing three or more nonsufficient fund checks to Bank of America, while many others abused the travel card program by failing to pay Bank of America charges or using the card for inappropriate transactions such as for prostitution and gambling. However, because Navy management was often not aware of these …
Date: October 8, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Teacher Training Programs: Activities Underway to Improve Teacher Training, but Information Collected To Assess Accountability Has Limitations (open access)

Teacher Training Programs: Activities Underway to Improve Teacher Training, but Information Collected To Assess Accountability Has Limitations

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998, the Congress amended the Higher Education Act (HEA) to enhance the quality of teaching in the classroom by improving training programs for prospective teachers and the qualifications of current teachers. This testimony focuses on two components of the legislation: one that provides grants and another, called the "accountability provisions," that requires collecting and reporting information on the quality of all teacher training programs and qualifications of current teachers. The Subcommittee asked that we provide information on (1) activities grantees supported and what results are associated with these activities and (2) whether the information collected under the accountability provisions provides the basis to assess the quality of teacher training programs and the qualifications of current teachers."
Date: October 9, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Customs Service: Acquisition and Deployment of Radiation Detection Equipment (open access)

Customs Service: Acquisition and Deployment of Radiation Detection Equipment

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Customs Service's acquisition and deployment of radiation detection equipment and assistance provided by the United States to foreign countries to combat nuclear smuggling. GAO found that observations concerning the acquisition of radiation detection equipment have not changed. The Customs Service's primary radiation detection equipment--radiation pagers--have certain limitations and may be inappropriate for the task. Further, there is still no comprehensive plan in place for installing and using radiation detection equipment at all U.S. border crossings and ports of entry. Regarding U.S. efforts to help other countries combat smuggling, a number of U.S. agencies, including Customs, have provided assistance to foreign countries--mostly in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. The agencies have provided a range of assistance including radiation detection equipment and training as well as other equipment and training to generally improve countries' ability to interdict nuclear smuggling."
Date: October 17, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Catastrophe Insurance Risks: The Role of Risk-Linked Securities (open access)

Catastrophe Insurance Risks: The Role of Risk-Linked Securities

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of population growth, resulting real estate development, and rising real estate values in hazard-prone areas, our nation is increasingly exposed to higher property casualty losses--both insured and uninsured--from natural catastrophes than in the past. In the 1990s, a series of natural disasters, including Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake, raised questions about the adequacy of the insurance industry's financial capacity to cover large catastrophes without limiting coverage or raising premiums. Recognizing this greater exposure and responding to concerns about insurance market capacity, participants in the insurance industry and capital markets have developed new capital market instruments as an alternative to traditional property-casualty reinsurance, or insurance for insurers. GAO's objectives were to (1) describe catastrophe risk and how the insurance and capital markets provide coverage against such risks; (2) describe how risk-linked securities, particularly catastrophe bonds, are structured; and (3) analyze how key regulatory, accounting, tax, and investor issues might affect the use of risk-linked securities."
Date: October 8, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Infrastructure: Fire Protection at Philadelphia Naval Business Center Meets Response Standards (open access)

Defense Infrastructure: Fire Protection at Philadelphia Naval Business Center Meets Response Standards

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "When the Department of Defense closed military installations as a part of the base realignment and closure process and transferred properties to public and private ownership, it in some cases retained a portion of an installation as a military enclave. During this process, legal jurisdiction over an enclave may be transferred from the federal government to the local government. Such a transfer may incorporate provisions for fire protection and other services by local and state governments. A federal fire-fighting service provides fire protection services at the Navy's enclave located at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center. This is one of the three military enclaves, formed during the base closure and realignment process, which is still protected by federal firefighters. Twenty-four other military enclaves were converted from federal to local fire protection during the base closure process. The Navy retained a federal fire-fighting force at its enclave at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center because of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not respond to the Navy's request to change the jurisdiction of the Navy-retained land. The level of fire protection at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center is similar to that …
Date: October 29, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental Protection: Issues Raised by the Reorganization of EPA's Ombudsman Function (open access)

Environmental Protection: Issues Raised by the Reorganization of EPA's Ombudsman Function

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal ombudsmen help their agencies be more responsive to the public through the impartial investigation of citizens' complaints. Professional standards for ombudsmen incorporate certain core principles, such as independence and impartiality. In July 2001, GAO reported that key aspects of EPA's hazardous waste ombudsman were not consistent with professional standards, particularly with regard to independence. (See GAO-01-813.) Partly in response to GAO's recommendations, EPA reorganized its ombudsman function and removed the national ombudsman from the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. GAO made preliminary observations on these changes in testimony in June and July 2002. (See GAO-02-859T and GAO-02-947T). This report provides information on (1) the current status of EPA's reorganization of the ombudsman function and (2) issues identified in our prior report and testimonies that have not yet been addressed."
Date: October 31, 2002
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library