U.S. Postal Service: Status, Financial Outlook, and Alternative Approaches to Fund Retiree Health Benefits (open access)

U.S. Postal Service: Status, Financial Outlook, and Alternative Approaches to Fund Retiree Health Benefits

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF) covered about 49 percent of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) $94 billion retiree health benefit liability at fiscal year-end 2012. USPS's deteriorating financial outlook, however, will make it difficult to continue the current prefunding schedule in the short term, and possibly to fully fund the remaining $48 billion unfunded liability over the remaining 44 years of the schedule on which the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) was based. The liability covers the projected benefits for about 471,000 current postal retirees and a portion of the projected benefits for about 528,000 current employees; it does not cover employees not yet hired. Under PAEA, USPS is responsible for contributing an additional $33.9 billion to the PSRHBF by fiscal year 2017, including the $11.1 billion USPS has defaulted on over the past 2 years. PAEA also requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to calculate the remaining unfunded liability in 2017 and develop an initial 40-year amortization payment schedule. USPS, however, projects further declines in mail volume and revenues that may continue to limit its ability to prefund the …
Date: December 4, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Border Security: Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen CBP Efforts to Mitigate Risk of Employee Corruption and Misconduct (open access)

Border Security: Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen CBP Efforts to Mitigate Risk of Employee Corruption and Misconduct

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicate that arrests of CBP employees for corruption-related activities since fiscal years 2005 account for less than 1 percent of CBP’s entire workforce per fiscal year. The majority of arrests of CBP employees were related to misconduct. There were 2,170 reported incidents of arrests for acts of misconduct such as domestic violence or driving under the influence from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2012, and a total of 144 current or former CBP employees were arrested or indicted for corruption-related activities, such as the smuggling of aliens and drugs, of whom 125 have been convicted as of October 2012. Further, the majority of allegations against CBP employees since fiscal year 2006 occurred at locations along the southwest border. CBP officials have stated that they are concerned about the negative impact that these cases have on agencywide integrity."
Date: December 4, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
DHS Management and Administration Spending: Reliable Data Could Help DHS Better Estimate Resource Requests (open access)

DHS Management and Administration Spending: Reliable Data Could Help DHS Better Estimate Resource Requests

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Officials from all eight Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components in GAO's review define management and administration (M&A) activities--activities that help agencies achieve their mission and program goals--differently, and while component officials said they can identify M&A spending, limitations exist in obtaining spending data from fiscal years 1999 through 2013. Officials from four of the eight components define their M&A activities according to the activities funded through their appropriations accounts and programs, projects, or activities (PPA) that are M&A in nature. For example, officials from the Transportation Security Administration said its M&A activities are those found within three PPAs within its Transportation Security Support appropriations account. The remaining four components each define M&A activities differently, and those definitions are not tied to activities contained in specific appropriations accounts. For example, the Coast Guard's M&A activities are those associated with headquarters and its service centers (e.g., personnel support), according to officials. According to component officials, the eight components GAO reviewed can identify their M&A spending, but currently do not because they are not required to do so by the department. Officials from seven of the eight components …
Date: December 4, 2013
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Management: Opportunities Exist to Improve Information Used in Monitoring Status of Efficiency Initiatives (open access)

Defense Management: Opportunities Exist to Improve Information Used in Monitoring Status of Efficiency Initiatives

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The military departments and SOCOM have taken various steps to track the implementation of their efficiency initiatives. For example, prior to or during fiscal year 2012, they identified necessary programmatic actions to implement initiatives and began to carry out these actions, such as reassigning personnel from organizations being consolidated and terminating weapon system programs. They also set up approaches for senior officials to review progress, including using existing governance structures as a means for officials to review relevant financial and programmatic information, such as expected completion dates for actions related to implementing the initiatives and progress in meeting estimated savings targets. To track savings related to the initiatives, the military departments and SOCOM identified the appropriation accounts and areas within these accounts from which they expected to achieve savings, the specific dollar amounts, and areas where savings were to be reinvested."
Date: December 4, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library