DOD Financial Management: Challenges in Attaining Audit Readiness and Improving Business Processes and Systems (open access)

DOD Financial Management: Challenges in Attaining Audit Readiness and Improving Business Processes and Systems

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO’s recent work highlights the types of challenges facing the Department of Defense (DOD) as it strives to attain audit readiness and reengineer its business processes and systems. The urgency in addressing these challenges has been increased by the goals of an auditable DOD Statement of Budgetary Resources (SBR) by the end of fiscal year 2014 and a complete set of auditable financial statements by the end of fiscal year 2017. For example, GAO’s 2011 reporting highlights difficulties the DOD components experienced in attempting to achieve an auditable SBR. These include:"
Date: April 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Food and Drug Administration: Employee Performance Standards for the Timely Review of Medical Product Applications (open access)

Food and Drug Administration: Employee Performance Standards for the Timely Review of Medical Product Applications

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Employee Performance Standards for the Timely Review of Medical Product Applications:"
Date: April 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tobacco Taxes: Large Disparities in Rates for Smoking Products Trigger Significant Market Shifts to Avoid Higher Taxes (open access)

Tobacco Taxes: Large Disparities in Rates for Smoking Products Trigger Significant Market Shifts to Avoid Higher Taxes

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Large federal excise tax disparities among tobacco products, which resulted from the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009, created opportunities for tax avoidance and led to significant market shifts by manufacturers and price sensitive consumers toward the lower-taxed products. Monthly sales of pipe tobacco increased from approximately 240,000 pounds in January 2009 to over 3 million pounds in September 2011, while roll-your-own tobacco dropped from about 2 million pounds to 315,000 pounds. For the same months, large cigar sales increased from 411 million to over 1 billion cigars, while small cigars dropped from about 430 million to 60 million cigars. According to government, industry, and nongovernmental organization representatives, many roll-your-own tobacco and small cigar manufacturers shifted to the lower-taxed products after CHIPRA to avoid paying higher taxes."
Date: April 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Air Emissions and Electricity Generation at U.S. Power Plants (open access)

Air Emissions and Electricity Generation at U.S. Power Plants

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Older electricity generating units—those that began operating in or before 1978—provided 45 percent of electricity from fossil fuel units in 2010 but produced a disproportionate share of emissions, both in aggregate and per unit of electricity generated. Overall, in 2010 older units contributed 75 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 64 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions, and 54 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel units. For each unit of electricity generated, older units collectively emitted about 3.6 times as much sulfur dioxide, 2.1 times as much nitrogen oxides, and 1.3 times as much carbon dioxide as newer units. The difference in emissions between older units and their newer counterparts may be attributed to a number of factors. First, 93 percent of the electricity produced by older fossil fuel units in 2010 was generated by coal-fired units. Compared with natural gas units, coal-fired units produced over 90 times as much sulfur dioxide, twice as much carbon dioxide and over five times as much nitrogen oxides per unit of electricity, largely because coal contains more sulfur and carbon than natural gas. Second, fewer older units have installed emissions controls, …
Date: April 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Department of Energy: Budget Trends and Oversight (open access)

Department of Energy: Budget Trends and Oversight

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent GAO work found that funding increases have expanded or created Department of Energy (DOE) programs with varying results. For example:"
Date: April 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library