A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in 1997 that it would modify its meat and poultry slaughter inspection program to make industry more responsible for identifying carcass defects. Before making the change permanent, USDA developed a model to test whether a prevention-oriented inspection system that uses plant personnel to examine each carcass and USDA inspectors to verify that quality standards are met would continue to ensure the safety of meat and poultry products. USDA's pilot project for chickens had several design and methodology problems that compromised the overall validity and reliability of its results. First, the chicken pilot that USDA designed lacked a control group--a critical design flaw that precluded a comparison between the performance of the inspection systems at those plants that volunteered to participate in the pilot and that of plants that did not participate. Second, the chicken plants that volunteered to participate in the baseline measurement phase of the pilot were not randomly selected, and they did not include plants from all chicken-producing areas or plants of all sizes. Third, the pilot project's methodology did not take into account such variables as seasonal …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement system is an information system to track marine safety and law-enforcement activities involving commercial and recreational vessels. In 1999, after spending about four years and $26 million, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) terminated a contract to acquire the system and will instead develop the system at its operation systems center. USCG has made progress in developing the system and was ready to deploy a minimum level of functionality in November 2001. However, USCG faces significant challenges and risks in several areas, including managing system requirements and user expectations, testing the system, moving to an operational system, and managing program risks."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the terrorist threat has risen to the top of the national agenda. Preparing for all possible contingencies is impractical, so a risk management approach should be used. This would include a threat assessment to determine which chemical or biological agents are of greatest concern. The federal government has various programs to prepare for and respond to chemical and biological terrorism, including response teams, support laboratories, training and equipment programs, and research efforts. Evaluations of chemical and biological preparedness have identified several problems and their solutions. Congress faces competing demands for spending as it seeks to invest resources to better prepare our nation for chemical and biological terrorism. Given the uncertainty of the chemical and biological threat, Congress may want to initially invest resources in efforts with broad applicability rather than in those that are applicable to a specific type of chemical or biological attack."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the American Chemical Society's financial statements for fiscal years 1999 and 1998. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditors' opinion 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 American Legion for fiscal years 1998 and 1999. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report included the auditor's opinion 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 Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America for fiscal year 2000. 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."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., for fiscal year 2000. GAO found that the corporation's resources were insufficient to engage a certified or licensed independent public accountant to perform the audit, as required by law. The corporation is trying to improve its funding."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Catholic War Veterans of the United States of America, Incorporated, for the fiscal year 1999. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit report 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 "The Immigration and Naturalization's (INS) organizational structure has led to recurring management problems, including an inability to balance competing priorities, poor communications, and weaknesses in the development and fielding of critical information technology. Although restructuring may help, INS will still need to assemble the basic building blocks essential to any organization. These building blocks include clearly delineated roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures that effectively balance competing priorities, effective internal and external communication and coordination, and computer systems that provide accurate and timely information. Until these element are in place, it will be difficult to enforce the nation's immigration laws effectively."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To make buses a more reliable and effective high-speed transit alternative, a new concept-- Bus Rapid Transit--proposes (1) running buses on highways exclusively for them or on HOV lanes or (2) improving service on busier routes on city streets. Federal support for Bus Rapid Transit projects may come from several different sources, including the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts, Bus Capital, and Urbanized Area Formula Grants programs, but its use is constrained. Two Bus Rapid Transit projects have received about $831 million in funding commitments from the current New Starts Program. Few additional Bus Rapid Transit projects will likely receive funding commitments under the current New Starts Program, which expires in 2003, because few Bus Rapid Transit projects are ready to compete for funding; many projects are eligible to compete for the $462 million that is projected to remain available for fiscal year 2003; and some types of Bus Rapid Transit projects are ineligible for New Starts funding because projects are required to operate on separate right-of-ways for the exclusive use of mass transit and high-occupancy vehicles. The Bus Rapid Transit systems generally had lower capital …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From 1945 through 1962, the United States conducted a series of aboveground atomic weapons tests. Many people exposed to radiation from this nuclear weapons testing program later developed serious diseases, including cancer. To begin the process of making partial restitution to these victims, the President signed into law the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990. RECA established the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund (Trust Fund), criteria for determining claimant eligibility for compensation, and a program (administered by the Attorney General) to process and adjudicate claims under the act. The Department of Justice (DOJ) established the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program (RECP) within its Civil Division to administer its responsibilities under the act. Through the end of fiscal year 2000, RECP received 7,819 applications for compensation. Roughly equal numbers of applications have been approved and denied, awarding compensation to about 46 percent of the claimants and denying compensation to about 46 percent. RECA claims are most often denied because the victim's disease is not eligible for compensation under the RECA program. The costs for administering RECP have fluctuated from the first full year of program implementation, fiscal …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) human capital management practices have been shaped largely by a growing staffing crisis that threatens to undermine the agency's ability to carry out its mission. GAO surveyed current and former SEC attorneys, accountants, and examiners to determine what factors influenced turnover, satisfaction, and morale among SEC staff. GAO found that inadequate compensation is the primary reason that employees leave the agency. But staff raised other issues that warrant attention, including limited opportunities for advancement, the amount of uncompensated overtime, and the quality of administrative support services. In response to the high turnover rates, SEC has placed greater emphasis on compensation-based human capital programs, including compensation-based flexibilities and performance awards. Although SEC uses compensation-based flexibilities to a greater extent than do other government agencies, the Office of Personnel Management believes it could do more. SEC has taken several steps to focus more attention on strategic human capital management but faces continuing challenges. In April 2001, SEC integrated its human capital strategies with it's core business practices by adding a human capital goal to its 2002 Annual Performance Plan. SEC has …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Chemical pesticides play an important role in providing Americans with an abundant and inexpensive food supply. However, these chemicals can have adverse effects on human health and the environment, and pests continue to develop resistance to them. Sustainable and effective agricultural pest management will require continued development and increased use of alternative pest management strategies, such as integrated pest management (IPM). Some IPM practices yield significant environmental and economic benefits in certain crops, and IPM can lead to better long-term pest management than chemical control alone. However, the federal commitment to IPM has waned over the years. The IPM initiative is missing several key management elements identified in the Government Performance and Results Act. Specifically, no one is effectively in charge of federal IPM efforts; coordination of IPM efforts is lacking among federal agencies and with the private sector; the intended results of these efforts have not been clearly articulated or prioritized; and methods for measuring IPM's environmental and economic results have not been developed. Until these shortcomings are addressed, the full range of potential benefits that IPM can yield for producers, the public, and the …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents criminal justice statistics for the District of Columbia and other major cities based on (1) Crime Index data and (2) arrestees' drug testing data. The 1999 Crime Index total rates for these large cities ranged from a high of 10,416 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in Detroit, Michigan, to a low of 2,944 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in San Jose, California. For Washington, D.C., the 1999 Crime Index total rate was 8,062 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. According to a recent National Institute of Justice (NIJ) report, 69 percent of the adult males arrested in the District of Columbia in calendar year 1999 tested positive for at least one type of drug. This figure was five percentage points higher than the median rate (64 percent) of the use of any drug among the adult males arrested that year in the 34 urban sites covered by NIJ's report."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Internally displaced persons--those forced to flee their homes because of armed conflict and persecution but who remain within their own country--are among the most at-risk, vulnerable populations in the world. Although some protections have been provided to internally displaced persons, international organizations have been unable to fully meet their needs in most locations, partly because of the danger in operating in conflict zones, the presence of personal security risks to aid workers, and the decline in budgetary resources, but also because international organizations have not taken a proactive approach toward protection. Also, international relief workers have not received training on how to incorporate protection considerations and interventions into their assistance activities. In the three countries GAO visited, international organizations do not coordinate their protection actions within the countries in which they operate. Without such coordination, international organizations are unable to share basic information on the location of their protection officers and effective approaches to protection interventions. The U.N. Security Council is one forum in which these matters can be addressed in the context of underlying political and security factors. The U.S. government has no overall policy …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been the major providers of bilateral development assistance to the Pacific Island nations since 1987. The Asian Development Bank and the European Union have been the major multilateral donors. The donors' main development objectives, according to the planning documents, have been to alleviate poverty and to set the Pacific Island nations on the path to economic self-sufficiency. To achieve these objectives, these donors focus their assistance in key areas, such as education, policy reform, and infrastructure. The United States could draw several lessons from the donors' experiences for providing assistance as well as the strategies and approaches the donors have adopted. These lessons could provide valuable insights for the United States as it negotiates additional economic assistance to the Federal States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. On the basis of the donors' experiences, GAO observed that (1) assistance strategies may involve trade-offs in expectations of aid effectiveness if other objectives for providing assistance take priority over development objectives; (2) assistance strategies may involve trade-offs between effectiveness and accountability, on the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) expenditures on business systems modernization. IRS obligated and expended available Information Technology Investment Account (ITIA) appropriations in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 to pay for external business systems modernization costs. In fiscal years 1999 and 2000, IRS expended about $12.8 million and $120.2 million, respectively, of ITIA appropriations and, as of September 30, 2000, had an additional $66 million of ITIA appropriations obligated to modernize its external business systems. IRS' use of ITIA appropriations appears to be for no purposes consistent with the fiscal year 1998 and 1999 appropriations acts and within the $249 million approved ITIA expenditure plans. IRS used its information systems (IS) appropriations and other appropriations to fund both internal and external business systems modernization costs. IRS paid its internal business systems modernization costs from its appropriations for IS; Tax Law Enforcement; and Processing, Assistance, and Management. However, the amount of these costs is unknown because IRS did not have a cost accounting system in place to track its internal costs for business systems modernization. IRS initiated actions in fiscal year 2000 to begin tracking …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted a legislative proposal that would modify Medicare's contracting authority. This report examines (1) the current law and practice in Medicare claims administration contracting, (2) provisions in the proposal that would increase HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) contracting flexibility, and (3) the provisions that deviate from standard federal contracting requirements for full and open competition and indemnification of contractors. Because of statutes and long-standing practices, Medicare claims administration contracting does not follow standard federal contracting rules in several ways. For example, federal agencies can generally terminate a contract at any time, but CMS cannot terminate contracts with Medicare claims administration contractors at the federal government's convenience. The proposed legislation would give CMS the same authority as other federal agencies to retain or terminate contractors. These provisions would increase the agency's flexibility to promote the contractor's performance and accountability. GAO is concerned, however, that the provisions would also allow CMS to bypass federal contracting rules for full and open competition. In addition, the proposal includes a provision that would require CMS to indemnify claims administration contractors from certain …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Rising prices for natural gas, electricity, and other fuels have made it even harder for low-income families to pay their utility bills. By the end of fiscal year 2000, the Office of Community Services had awarded $30 million in Residential Energy Assistance Challenge Option (REACH) program grants to 24 states and 12 tribal organizations to fund 54 separate projects to help meet the home energy (heating and cooling) needs of low-income households. These grants ranged from $50,000 to $1.6 million. Most of the 54 REACH projects have educated low-income clients about home energy efficiency through group workshops or on individual home visits. Many REACH projects have involved energy-related repairs to homes and budget counseling, and three state REACH projects are developing consumer cooperatives to purchase electricity or bulk fuels, such as heating oil. However, some REACH projects have included social services not directly related to meeting home energy needs. The legislation authorizing REACH identifies the following three performance goals for individual REACH projects, (1) reduce the energy costs of participating households, (2) increase the regularity of home energy bill payments, and (3) increase energy suppliers' contributions …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan to assess the agency's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to the agency's mission. GAO found that although USAID reported progress toward achieving the selected outcomes, the extent of the progress is unclear because the agency based its support on disaggregated and, in some cases, out-of-date and selective data. Unlike past years when USAID issued separate performance reports and performance plans, the agency issued a performance overview supplemented by more detailed data in the fiscal year 2000 budget justification to Congress, both of which incorporated elements of performance reporting and planning. In the fiscal year 2000 Performance Overview, USAID based its statements of progress on self-reported fiscal year 1999 performance data provided by individual USAID missions. In addition, USAID reported progress toward achieving agency goals and objectives by relying on selected information about an individual country's missions' performance. Although USAID reported detailed fiscal year 2000 performance data at the operating unit level in its budget justification, those data were not aggregated to …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Without adequate transportation, welfare recipients face significant barriers in moving from welfare to work. Three-fourths of welfare recipients live in central cities or rural areas, while two-thirds of the new jobs are in the suburbs. For many of these new jobs, access to public transportation facilities, such as buses or subways, is limited or nonexistent. To address this issue, the Department of Transportation (DOT) implemented the Job Access and Reverse Commute program. GAO's previous reviews of this program found that, although it would help support the reform of the welfare system by providing transportation resources to welfare recipients, DOT needed to improve several aspects of the program. GAO made several recommendations to enhance DOT's evaluation of the program and to promote coordination with other agencies. GAO reported that in 1999 and 2000, DOT had implemented the recommendations and had taken steps to refine its grant selection process. GAO plans to issue a report on the Job Access program in December 2001, and, in 2002, GAO expects to report on grantees' experiences in implementing their Job Access projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report examines selected logistics, funding, and readiness issues pertaining to the AH-64 Apache helicopter program. GAO found that the Apache's identified sustainment systems technical support requirements have not been fully met in fiscal years 2000 and 2001. In fiscal year 2000, funding fell short of the $28.6 million needed for Apache sustainment support. The military projects that it will be able to meet only 56 percent of the Apache's sustainment support requirements for fiscal years 2001-2003. Furthermore, because the Apache sustainment support projects must compete with other weapon systems for limited funding, some Apache projects have been delayed or limited in scope. GAO also found that the procurement of parts for the Apache is hampered by an outdated inventory system. The technical manuals used by field and depot personnel lack critical technical drawings and specifications, and the Army must resort to other methods, such as reverse engineering, to compensate for the lack of data. Finally, the Army has several unfunded requirements for Apache component upgrades for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. GAO found, however, that these issues have not prevented the Apache fleet from meeting …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's three-stage approach for addressing the federal government's human capital challenges. First, agencies must take all administrative steps available to them under current laws and regulations to manage their people for results. While much of what agencies need to accomplish these steps is already available to them, they will need the sustained commitment from top management and the support from both the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to do so. Second, the Administration and Congress should pursue selected legislative opportunities to put new tools and flexibilities in place that will help agencies attract, motivate, and retain employees--both overall and, especially, in connection with critical occupations. Third, all interested parties should work together to determine the nature and extent of more comprehensive human capital (or civil service) reforms that should be enacted over time. These reforms should include placing greater emphasis on skills, knowledge, and performance in connection with federal employment and compensation decisions, rather than the passage of time and rate of inflation, as is often the case today."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The research and development environment has changed dramatically during lst several decades. The government is no longer in the driver's seat, but it still needs access to research and technology advances. At the same time, its effort to compete for access must be balanced against a range of commercial, economic, legal, and other interests. The vehicles discussed in this testimony (the Bayh-Dole Act and Department of Defense "other transaction" authority) are among the tools that the government can use to attract new players to the research and development arena and to maintain access to advances. However, effective use of these tools requires good training and a greater exercise of reasoned discretion among program officials and contracting officers. The Defense Department has taken a very good first step in developing appropriate guidance. However, the next steps are more critical: providing the training and assurances that the guidance will be appropriately implemented."