Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses oversight of U.S. assistance programs in Afghanistan. Strengthening the Afghan economy through development assistance efforts is critical to the counterinsurgency strategy and a key part of the U.S Integrated Civilian-Military Campaign Plan for Afghanistan. Since fiscal year 2002, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded over $11.5 billion in support of development assistance programs in Afghanistan. Since 2003, GAO has issued several reports and testimonies related to U.S. security, governance, and development efforts in Afghanistan. In addition to reviewing program planning and implementation, we have focused on efforts to ensure proper management and oversight of the U.S. investment, which are essential to reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. Over the course of this work, we have identified improvements that were needed, as well as many obstacles that have affected success and should be considered in program management and oversight. While drawing on past work relating to U.S. development efforts in Afghanistan, this testimony focuses on findings in our most recent report released yesterday on the USAID's management and oversight of its agricultural programs in Afghanistan. It will address (1) the challenges the United States …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Protective Service (FPS), which is within the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), is responsible for protecting the more than 1 million federal employees and members of the public who work in and visit the over 9,000 federal facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) from a potential terrorist attack or other acts of violence. To accomplish its facility protection mission, FPS has about 1,200 full-time employees and approximately 13,200 contract security guards. FPS has an annual budget of about $1 billion and receives its funding from the revenues and collections of security fees charged to tenant agencies for protective services such as facility security assessments (FSA) and providing contract security guard services. Since 2008, we have issued numerous reports that address major challenges FPS faces in protecting federal facilities. For example, in 2009 and 2010 we reported that FPS had problems completing high-quality FSAs in a timely manner and did not provide adequate oversight of its contract guard program. In September 2007, FPS decided to address the challenges with its legacy security assessment and guard management systems …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Participants identified a range of challenges and opportunities associated with data analytics--which involve a variety of techniques to analyze and interpret data to facilitate decision making--as discussed below."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our past work examining the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) progress and challenges in developing and acquiring new technologies to address homeland security needs. DHS acquisition programs represent hundreds of billions of dollars in life-cycle costs and support a wide range of missions and investments including border surveillance and screening equipment, nuclear detection equipment, and technologies used to screen airline passengers and baggage for explosives, among others. Since its creation in 2003, DHS has spent billions of dollars developing and procuring technologies and other countermeasures to address various threats and to conduct its missions. Within DHS, the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) conducts general research and development and oversees the testing and evaluation efforts of DHS components, which are responsible for developing, testing, and acquiring their own technologies. This testimony focuses on the findings of our prior work related to DHS's efforts to acquire and deploy new technologies to address homeland security needs. Our past work has identified three key challenges: (1) developing technology program requirements, (2) conducting and completing testing and evaluation of technologies and (3) incorporating information on costs and benefits in making …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses preventing and addressing government payment errors in the Medicare program. Medicare, which provides health insurance for those aged 65 and older and certain disabled persons, is susceptible to improper payments due to its size and complexity. Because the Medicare program has paid billions of dollars in error each year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)--the agency that administers Medicare--conducts a number of activities to reduce improper payments. CMS administers the Medicare program with the help of Medicare claims administration contractors, which are not only responsible for processing and paying approximately 4.5 million claims per day, but for also conducting pre-payment reviews of claims to prevent improper payments before claims are paid, as well as post-payment reviews of claims potentially paid in error. To supplement these and other program integrity efforts, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 directed CMS to conduct a 3-year demonstration project on the use of a new type of contractors---recovery audit contractors (RAC)---in identifying underpayments and overpayments, and recouping overpayments in the Medicare program. The RAC demonstration program began in 2005. Subsequently, the Tax Relief and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Most of the agencies GAO reviewed for its September 2012 report leveraged a fraction of their buying power. More specifically, in fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security, Energy, and Veterans Affairs (VA) accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent of that spending, or $25.8 billion, through strategic sourcing efforts. Similarly, GAO found that the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative had only managed a small amount of spending through its four government-wide strategic sourcing initiatives in fiscal year 2011, although it reported achieving significant savings on those efforts. Further, we found that most selected agencies' efforts did not address their highest spending areas, such as services, which may provide opportunities for significant savings."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. insular areas face serious economic and fiscal challenges and rely on federal funding to support their governments and deliver critical services. The Department of the Interior, through its Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), provides about $70 million in grants annually, including technical assistance grants, to increase insular area self-sufficiency. In the past, GAO and others have raised concerns regarding insular areas' internal control weaknesses, which increase the risk of grant fund mismanagement, fraud, and abuse. In March 2010, GAO reported on insular area grants (GAO-10-347); this testimony summarizes that report and focuses on (1) whether previously reported internal control weaknesses have been addressed and, if not, to what extent they are prevalent among OIA grant projects, including technical assistance grant projects, as of March 2010; and (2) the extent to which OIA has taken action to improve the implementation and management grant projects, as of March 2010. For the March 2010 report, GAO reviewed a random sample of 173 OIA grant project files and interviewed OIA and insular area officials. For this testimony, GAO conducted additional analysis for the 49 technical assistance grant projects included in the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the briefing presented to congressional staff on June 30, 2011 regarding the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (Zadroga Act). The Zadroga Act requires GAO to report by July 1, 2011, on whether the Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCE) under contract with the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) Administrator have financial systems that allow for the timely submission of health care claims data as envisioned by the act. Beginning on July 1, 2011, the WTCHP is to provide medical services to responders and survivors of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks through contracted medical facilities known as CCEs in the New York City/New Jersey metropolitan area and a nationwide network of providers. In addition to providing medical services, the WTCHP is required to collect, report, and analyze data, including health care claims data; perform research on World Trade Center-related health conditions; and establish an outreach program. The Secretary of Health and Human Services designated the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as the WTCHP Administrator. The Administrator is responsible, as specified by the Zadroga Act, for …