Financial Audit: Statement of Accountability of the House Finance Office
for Fiscal Year 1992 (Letter Report, 03/18/94, GAO/AIMD-94-63).

GAO audited the statement of accountability for appropriations and other
funds arising from cash transactions of the House Finance Office for
fiscal year 1992. The House Finance Office handles receipts and
disbursements for House offices, congressional committees, and the
Capitol Police. GAO found that the statement was reliable in all
material respects; internal controls reasonably ensured that losses,
noncompliance with laws and regulations, and misstatements material to
the financial statements would be prevented or detected; and there was
no material noncompliance with laws and regulations.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  AIMD-94-63
     TITLE:  Financial Audit: Statement of Accountability of the House 
             Finance Office for Fiscal Year 1992
      DATE:  03/18/94
   SUBJECT:  Federal agency accounting systems
             Accounting procedures
             Financial management
             Legislative bodies
             Compliance
             Cash basis accounting
             Cash management
             Accountability
             Civil audits
             Financial statement audits

             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Report to the Clerk of the House of Representatives

March 1994

FINANCIAL AUDIT - STATEMENT OF
ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE HOUSE
FINANCE OFFICE FOR FISCAL YEAR
1992

GAO/AIMD-94-63

House Finance Office Accountability


Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


Letter
=============================================================== LETTER


B-114864

March 18, 1994

The Honorable Donnald K.  Anderson
Clerk of the House of Representatives

Dear Mr.  Anderson: 

As you requested, we audited the accompanying Statement of
Accountability for Appropriations and Other Funds arising from cash
transactions of the Finance Office, House of Representatives, for the
fiscal year ended September 30, 1992.  We found

  the Statement of Accountability was reliable in all material
     respects;

  internal controls in effect on September 30, 1992, provided
     reasonable assurance that losses, noncompliance with laws and
     regulations, and misstatements material to the financial
     statements would be prevented or detected; and

  no material noncompliance with laws and regulations we tested. 

The following sections outline each conclusion in more detail and
discuss the scope of our audit. 


   OPINION ON THE STATEMENT OF
   ACCOUNTABILITY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1

The Statement of Accountability for Appropriations and Other Funds
was prepared on a cash basis, which is a comprehensive basis of
accounting other than that required by generally accepted accounting
principles.  The statement presents fairly, in conformity with the
cash basis of accounting described in note 2, the receipts and
disbursements of the Clerk of the House for appropriated and other
funds arising from cash transactions of the House Finance Office for
the fiscal year ended September 30, 1992. 

Our audit was conducted for the purpose of expressing an opinion on
the basic Statement of Accountability taken as a whole.  The
Supplemental Schedule of Appropriations and Other Funds is presented
for the purpose of additional analysis and is not a required part of
the Statement of Accountability.  This information has been subjected
to the auditing procedures applied in our audit of the Statement of
Accountability and, in our opinion, is fairly stated in all material
respects in relation to the basic statement taken as a whole. 



   OPINION ON INTERNAL CONTROLS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2

The internal controls we evaluated were those designed to

  safeguard assets against loss from unauthorized use or disposition;

  assure the execution of transactions in accordance with laws and
     regulations; and

  properly record, process, and summarize transactions to permit the
     preparation of financial statements and to maintain
     accountability for assets. 

Those controls in effect on September 30, 1992, provided reasonable
assurance that losses, noncompliance, or misstatements material in
relation to the financial statements would be prevented or detected. 


   COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND
   REGULATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3

Our tests for compliance with selected provisions of laws and
regulations disclosed no material instances of noncompliance.  Also,
nothing came to our attention in the course of our other work to
indicate that material noncompliance with such provisions occurred. 


   OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND
   METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4

Management is responsible for

  preparing the Statement of Accountability in conformity with the
     cash basis of accounting described in note 2;

  establishing and maintaining internal controls to provide
     reasonable assurance that the internal control objectives
     mentioned above are met; and

  complying with applicable laws and regulations. 

We are responsible for obtaining reasonable assurance about whether
(1) the financial statements are reliable (free of material
misstatement) and presented fairly in conformity with the cash basis
of accounting described in note 2 and (2) relevant internal controls
are in place and operating effectively.  We are also responsible for
testing compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations. 

In order to fulfill these responsibilities, we

  examined, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and
     disclosures in the Statement of Accountability;

  assessed the accounting principles used by management;

  evaluated the overall presentation of the Statement of
     Accountability;

  evaluated and tested relevant internal controls which encompassed
     the following areas:  treasury, payroll, other expenditures, and
     financial reporting; and

  tested compliance with selected provisions of

the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for fiscal years 1990,
1991, and 1992 (Public Laws 101-163, 101-520, and 102-90,
respectively);

the U.S.  Department of the Treasury financial reporting requirements
for disbursing officers (Treasury Financial Manual, volume I, chapter
3100);

laws and implementing Office of Personnel Management regulations on
employee benefits and employer costs (5 U.S.C.  8334, 8422, 8423,
8707, 8708, and 8906);

laws and implementing Internal Revenue Service regulations on federal
income and social security tax withholding (26 U.S.C.  3402, and
3101); and

the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 1977 (Public Law 94-440)
authorizing voluntary withholding of state income taxes. 

We limited our work to accounting and other controls necessary to
achieve the objectives outlined in the opinion on internal controls. 
Because of inherent limitations in any system of internal control,
losses, noncompliance, or misstatements may nevertheless occur and
not be detected.  We also caution that projecting any evaluation to
future periods is subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the degree of
compliance with controls may deteriorate. 

We performed our audits in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards.  We completed our audit work on
September 5, 1993. 

Sincerely yours,





Charles A.  Bowsher
Comptroller General
of the United States


STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR
APPROPRIATIONS AND OTHER FUNDS
=========================================================== Appendix 0



   (See figure in printed
   edition.)


NOTES TO STATEMENT
=========================================================== Appendix 1



   (See figure in printed
   edition.)



   (See figure in printed
   edition.)


SUPPLEMENTAL SCHEDULE OF
APPROPRIATIONS AND OTHER FUNDS
=========================================================== Appendix 2



   (See figure in printed
   edition.)



   (See figure in printed
   edition.)