Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Request: U.S. General Accounting Office
(26-JUN-01, GAO-01-809T).
This testimony discusses GAO's achievements in fiscal year 2000,
its current plans and future challenges, and its budget request
for fiscal year 2002. Financial benefits to taxpayers as a result
of GAO's work totaled more than $23 billion in fiscal year
2000--a $61 return on every dollar invested in GAO. During fiscal
year 2001, GAO continued to focus its work on the major issues
facing Congress, such as Social Security, and worked with leaders
in the House and the Senate to strengthen congressional
oversight. GAO requested a budget of about $430 million in fiscal
year 2002. This funding level will allow GAO to maintain a staff
of 3,275 full-time equivalent employees. In the coming fiscal
year, GAO plans to increasingly emphasize issues that are of
significant congressional and public concern and to take steps
internally to address its two major management challenges--human
capital and information technology.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-01-809T
ACCNO: A01176
TITLE: Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Request: U.S. General Accounting
Office
DATE: 06/26/2001
SUBJECT: Information resources management
Personnel recruiting
Future budget projections
Budget outlays
Budget authority
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GAO-01-809T
FISCAL YEAR 2002 BUDGET REQUEST
U.S. General Accounting Office Statement of David M. Walker Comptroller
General of the United States
GAO-01-809T United States General Accounting Office
GAO Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Legislative,
Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives
For Release on Delivery 4:00 p.m. EST June 13, 2001
1
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: As the Comptroller General of
the United States, it is a pleasure to appear before you today to present
the General Accounting Office?s (GAO?s) budget request for fiscal year 2002.
I am proud to say that we served the Congress and the American people well
in fiscal year 2000. Our work resulted in substantial financial savings and
significant improvements to government that will benefit all Americans. I am
confident that fiscal year 2001 will be just as productive.
At the outset, I want to thank the Committee for its support in helping
enact GAO?s human capital legislation. This legislation will go a long way
toward helping us address many of our human capital requirements and
ensuring that GAO remains prepared to meet the Congress? needs in the
future. We have issued implementing regulations for the early retirement and
scientific and technical staff provisions and plan to issue authorizing
regulations later this year to guide any potential future buy-outs and
reductions-in-force.
GAO?s fiscal year 2002 budget request is critical to our continuing efforts
to reorganize and reshape the agency, reengineer our business processes, and
train and equip our staff with up-to- date technology to help meet Congress?
current and future needs. Congressional mandates and requests continue to
represent over 90 percent of our work, and our workload and productivity
remain at near-record levels. Our budget request represents our needs--not
wants--to sustain this level of effort and support to the Congress.
Since becoming the Comptroller General at the beginning of fiscal year 1999,
GAO?s appropriations have been insufficient to fund mandatory and inflation
expenses associated with employee compensation and benefits, and make needed
investments in critical areas, such as technology, training, and performance
recognition. We have managed our resource shortages by reducing our staffing
levels and underfunding critical investments. We cannot, and should not,
continue this trend.
The funds we are requesting are essential to helping us remain prepared to
meet the complex, controversial, and multidimensional issues and challenges
confronting the Congress now and in the future. Our request includes only
those funds we need to stabilize at our targeted 3,275 full- time equivalent
staffing level and to incrementally increase investments needed in training,
technology, performance recognition, and other key support items to a level
consistent with best practices of other comparable government and private
sector entities.
Before I begin detailing our fiscal year 2002 budget needs, I would like to
highlight some of GAO?s accomplishments and achievements in fiscal year 2000
and the major challenges confronting us.
A REVIEW OF GAO?S FISCAL YEAR 2000 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
GAO had a tremendous year in fiscal year 2000. As a result of actions taken
on our work by the Congress and federal departments and agencies, taxpayers
benefited from over $23 billion in financial savings-a $61 return on every
$1 invested in GAO. Our work also resulted in significant improvements in
government operations and services that will benefit all Americans.
2
Among other things, by acting on our recommendations, the government
improved public health and safety, strengthened national security, better
protected consumers, and improved its financial management and information
systems. We also contributed critical information to public debates on
Social Security and Medicare reform and called attention to looming
problems, such as the security of government computer systems and the
knowledge and skills needed in the federal workforce in coming years. Other
indicators of our performance, such as the number of testimonies our senior
executives provided and recommendations implemented, exceeded that of most
recent years. I also am pleased to report that we made significant progress
toward addressing many of the organizational, human capital, and information
technology challenges that I outlined for you at last year?s hearing. We had
a very busy and productive year.
Taxpayers Benefit from $23 Billion in Financial Savings
In fiscal year 2000, GAO helped achieve about $23.2 billion in direct
financial benefits for the American taxpayer. These benefits are a result of
the Congress or federal departments and agencies implementing our
recommendations to make government services more efficient, improve the
budgeting and spending of tax dollars, and strengthen the management of
federal resources. The estimated financial benefits include budget
reductions, costs avoided, resources reallocated, and revenue enhancements.
These results exceeded our target of $22 billion and were greater than that
of the previous three fiscal years, as illustrated in the following graphic.
Financial Benefits Resulting from GAO?s Work $20.9 $19.7 $20.1 $22.0 $23.2
0 4
8 12
16 20
24 Dollars in billions
1997 1998 1999 2000 Target 2000
Fiscal year
Some examples of GAO?s work that contributed to these financial savings
include the following. Helping to Prevent Fraud and Abuse in Medicare: GAO
had long advocated increased funding specifically for activities to prevent
fraud and abuse in the Medicare program. In 1996, the Congress passed the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,
3
which provided the additional funding. As a result of these activities, the
Medicare program?s net savings were about $3 billion in fiscal year 2000.
Cutting Costs of the F-22 Aircraft Program: In a series of reports beginning
in the mid- 1990s, GAO questioned various aspects of the Air Force?s F-22
aircraft acquisition program. We reported that the acquisition strategy was
risky and that the program was experiencing cost growth, manufacturing
problems with test aircraft, and testing delays. Our analysis helped the
Congress reduce the final fiscal year 2000 appropriation request for the
F-22 by about $552 million and to identify conditions that should be met
before the Department of Defense could begin full production.
Supporting Oversight of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): GAO continued to
support congressional oversight of IRS' operations, including IRS'
implementation of the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act, its budget
requests, and administration of various tax functions. For example, our
testimony on IRS' broad-based modernization efforts provided an integrated
assessment of the challenges IRS continues to face in its tax enforcement
and customer service operations and its modernization of performance
management, information systems, and business practices. At the same time,
our work generated savings and potential reductions in taxpayer burden. Our
work on the improved use of information returns in IRS' tax enforcement
operations yielded $83 million in savings this year. IRS also agreed to
begin tracking information that has the potential of clarifying its notices
to taxpayers and easing their task in complying with those notices.
Recapturing Excess HUD Funding: GAO identified funding from several sources
in the Department of Housing and Urban Development?s budget, including
unexpended balances no longer needed, that could be recaptured in fiscal
years 1998 and 1999. The Congress rescinded $1.65 billion from the Section 8
housing program?s fiscal year 1998 budget authority and rejected $1.3
billion of HUD's fiscal year 1999 request for housing assistance for a total
reduction of $2.95 billion. Subsequently, GAO and HUD worked together to
revise HUD's analysis to show that, by using recaptured funds, HUD had
sufficient funding to meet its needs.
Almost 800 Actions Taken To Improve Government Operations or Services
GAO?s recommendations and audit findings also resulted in or contributed to
many improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of government
operations and services during fiscal year 2000. While immeasurable in
dollar terms, they contributed to improving public safety and consumer
protection, establishing more effective and efficient government operations,
and safeguarding the nation?s physical and information infrastructure. We
recorded 788 actions taken in response to our recommendations to improve how
the federal government operates, a number far exceeding that of the
preceding 3 years as illustrated in the following graphic.
4
GAO?s Work Improving Government Operations and Services
391 537 607 620
788 0 200
400 600
800 Number of actions
1997 1998 1999 2000 Target 2000
Fiscal year
Examples of GAO?s work that resulted in these accomplishments follow.
Improving Nursing Home Quality of Care: The Health Care Financing
Administration (HCFA) and several states-including California, Maryland, and
Michigan-improved their oversight and enforcement of nursing homes? quality
of care standards in response to GAO?s recommendations highlighting
weaknesses in existing processes. Improvements included increased funding
for nursing home surveyors, more prompt investigation of complaints alleging
serious harm to residents, more immediate enforcement actions for homes with
repeated serious problems, a reorganization of HCFA?s regional staff to
improve consistency in oversight, and increased funding for administrative
law judges to reduce the backlog of appealed enforcement actions.
Managing Wildfire Prevention: ?Federal Experts Saw Massive Wildfires Coming"
read an August 7, 2000, news headline. The article was referring to GAO?s
April 1999 report on wildfires. Since then, GAO has used the increased risk
of uncontrollable and often catastrophic wildfires as an example of the need
for "strategic budgeting" to address issues that are not aligned with the
current budget and organizational structures of the four major federal land
management agencies. Responding to the wildfires that burned over 6.5
million acres of public and private land in 2000, the Congress appropriated
an additional $240 million in fiscal year 2001 to reduce hazardous fuels in
high-risk locations where wildlands and urban areas meet. GAO testified on
the need for the four land management agencies to act quickly to develop a
framework to spend funds effectively and to account accurately for what they
accomplish with the funds.
Improving Human Capital Practices: Our work on human capital issues helped
focus the attention of the executive and legislative branches on the
importance of these issues,
5
particularly in managing for results. We helped spur the administration to
make human capital a priority management objective in the fiscal year 2001
budget submission, and our framework for human capital self-assessment is
being used at other agencies, including the Social Security Administration,
Small Business Administration, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency. The framework also is
used throughout GAO to help guide our research and development work and our
congressionally driven examinations of how well agencies are pursuing
strategic human capital management in support of their missions and goals.
We have designated strategic human capital management as one of the federal
government?s high risk areas in our 2001 Performance and Accountability
Series and High-Risk Update.
Strengthening Information Security: GAO has evaluated the security of
critical information systems at federal agencies and recommended numerous
improvements, most recently at three Treasury agencies, the Department of
Energy, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Environmental Protection
Agency. In September 2000, GAO issued a governmentwide perspective on
federal information security that covered Inspector General and GAO audit
findings reported since July 1999. We concluded that weak security continues
to be a widespread problem that places critical and sensitive federal
operations at risk of tampering, disruption, and inappropriate disclosure.
In October 2000, government information security reform provisions were
enacted into law to strengthen information security practices throughout the
government.
Stabilizing the Balkans: Despite the presence of two large forces led by the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Balkans remain volatile. GAO's work
has shown that the international operations in Bosnia and Kosovo face severe
obstacles to achieving enduring peace and stability. Most local leaders and
members of their respective ethnic groups have not embraced the political
and social reconciliation needed to build multiethnic, democratic societies.
Our work also has shown that the international community has not provided
the resources that the United Nations mission in Kosovo says it needs,
particularly for building a civilian police force. If progress is not made
with these matters, violence may escalate or armed conflict may result.
Requests for GAO Testimony and Implementation of Recommendations Increased
In fiscal year 2000, the number of times that GAO?s senior executives
testified before the Congress and the rate at which our recommendations were
implemented exceeded that of most recent years. Because GAO?s primary
function is to support the Congress in carrying out its decision-making and
oversight responsibilities, the number of times our experts testify before
congressional panels each year is an indicator of our responsiveness and
reflects the impact, importance, and value of our work. In fiscal year 2000,
GAO officials testified 263 times before 104 different House and Senate
Committees and Subcommittees, more than half of all congressional committees
and subcommittees. Our experts testified on a broad range of issues of
national importance, including arms control, health care, Social Security,
human capital, nuclear waste cleanup, wildfire prevention, aviation safety
and security, international trade, computer security, financial management
and reform, and budget issues.
6
Our assistance to the Congress at public hearings continues to remain high,
as illustrated below. However, it is clear that the number of congressional
oversight hearings and other GAO testimony opportunities will decline
significantly in fiscal year 2001 as a result of factors beyond our control.
Among these include the slow start of the 107 th Congress due to the power
sharing arrangements in the Senate, closer margins and committee leadership
changes in the House, and delay in filling many Bush Administration policy
positions.
GAO Appearances at Congressional Hearings 182
256 229 230
263 0 90
180 270
Number of testimonies 1997 1998 1999 2000
Target 2000 Fiscal year
We also exceeded our performance of previous years with respect to the rate
at which the recommendations we made 4 years ago were implemented. We use a
4-year interval because our historical data show that agencies often need
time to take action on our recommendations. By the end of fiscal year 2000,
78 percent of the recommendations we made in fiscal year 1996 had been
implemented. As illustrated in the graphic below, this rate exceeds that of
the preceding 3 years. Implemented recommendations correct the underlying
causes of problems, weaknesses in internal controls, failures to comply with
laws or regulations, or other matters impeding effective and efficient
performance.
7
Rate of GAO Recommendations Implemented 74 69 70 73 78
0 20
40 60
80 Percent of recommendations implemented
1997 1998 1999 2000 Target 2000
Fiscal year Significant Progress Made Addressing Management and Operational
Issues
Last year, I outlined for you a number of major management and operational
challenges facing GAO. These challenges included human capital, information
technology, organizational, job processes, and communication issues within
the agency. I am pleased to report that we made significant progress toward
addressing many of these issues.
We continued to enhance our effectiveness and efficiency through a variety
of means during fiscal year 2000, including issuing a strategic plan,
establishing congressional protocols, realigning the agency, implementing
key human capital initiatives, and increasing the use of information
technology. These efforts to enhance and strengthen GAO and its services to
the Congress and the American people include the following.
In the Spring of 2000, we issued our first strategic plan for the 21 st
century based on input from the Congress and supplemented by GAO?s own
expertise and other outreach efforts. The plan focuses on how we intend to
support the Congress in helping to shape a more efficient and effective
government. It describes our role and mission in the federal government; the
core values that guide our work; the trends, conditions, and external
factors underlying our plan; and our goals, objectives, and strategies for
serving the Congress. Our intent is to update the strategic plan every 2
years for each Congress.
We established a set of congressional protocols to govern our interactions
with and ensure our accountability to the Congress. These protocols, which
underwent a 9- month pilot test, set out clear, transparent, consistently
applied policies and practices
8
for GAO?s relations with the Congress to reduce miscommunication and ensure
that all requesters are treated equitably. The final protocols were issued
in November 2000.
We continued our outreach efforts to understand how best to meet
congressional needs and assist the Congress in using our resources and
services. During each Congress, I and other GAO executives plan to meet with
the leadership of the Senate and House, all Committee Chairs and Ranking
Minority Members, and Members of our oversight and appropriations committees
to obtain feedback on our performance and information needed to update our
strategic plan.
We issued our first-ever Accountability Report to the Congress discussing
our performance and accountability in serving the Congress and the American
people in fiscal year 1999. The report reviews our accomplishments in
meeting our mission and sustaining our core values of accountability,
integrity, and reliability. We also issued a performance plan for fiscal
year 2001 that contains the performance measures and annual performance
targets we will use to gauge progress toward accomplishing our strategic
goals and objectives.
We also realigned the agency to better support the Congress and prepare
ourselves with current and expected resource levels to meet the future
challenges outlined in our strategic plan. To align GAO?s structure with the
goals in our strategic plan, we reorganized both our field and headquarters
operations. The changes were primarily designed to better align our
resources with our strategic plan, eliminate a layer of managerial
hierarchy, reduce the number of organizational units, increase internal and
external coordination activities with the Congress and other accountability
organizations, clarify the roles and responsibilities of management,
increase the number of personnel who perform rather than manage or review
work, and increase the critical mass and enhance the flexibility of field
resources.
We also began implementing a range of new and enhanced human capital and
information technology strategies to position GAO for future success. Thanks
to the Congress, we now have legislative authority that provides us greater
flexibility to effectively manage our human capital. This legislation,
enacted into law in October 2000, grants us the authority to establish new
senior-level scientific and technical positions; offer targeted voluntary
early-outs and buy-outs; and carry out reductions in force to downsize,
realign, or correct skills imbalances within our agency. We have issued
implementing regulations for early-outs and the scientific and technical
positions and plan to issue buy-out and reductions-in-force authorizing
regulations later this year.
Other accomplishments within the human capital area include: Completion of a
first-ever electronic knowledge and skills assessment and inventory that is
being used to help identify skill gaps and succession planning needs within
the agency. In addition, staff completed an employee preference survey that
is being used along with the results of the knowledge and skills inventory
to meet our
9
institutional work needs while accommodating staff preferences for
engagements to the extent possible.
Significant recruiting and college relations efforts on the nation?s
campuses. Aggressive efforts are underway to attract, recruit, and hire
high-caliber staff with the skills and abilities needed to assist GAO in
achieving our strategic goals and objectives.
Revised performance standards for all staff that incorporate GAO?s core
values and strategic goals, update descriptions of performance to better
reflect the current nature of GAO?s work, and include key management and
performance concepts, such as leadership by example, client service, and
measurable results. Also, during fiscal year 2000, we began a major
initiative to develop a competency-based performance appraisal system for
analysts to reflect prevailing best practices. In fiscal year 2001, we will
begin updating the performance systems for attorneys and mission support
staff to reflect prevailing best practices.
Enhanced internal communications that remain a vital tool for change
management throughout the agency. Throughout fiscal year 2000, I conducted a
number of telecasts to all agency staff to discuss GAO?s strategic plan and
congressional protocols, client service, employee survey results,
initiatives to enhance the agency?s human capital programs and legislative
proposals, work processes, organizational alignment, information technology,
and other areas of interest to the staff. Also, to engage our employees more
fully in improving the agency?s performance, we established the Comptroller
General?s Employee Advisory Council to discuss current and emerging issues
of mutual interest and concern and implemented an employee suggestion
program that received more than 800 submissions in its first year of
operation.
We also made significant gains in strengthening and improving our operations
and processes in fiscal year 2000. We implemented two new management
strategies: risk management and matrix management. GAO?s risk management
approach allows management to identify and involve key stakeholders
throughout an engagement to transcend traditional organizational boundaries
to maximize institutional value and minimize related risks. GAO?s matrix
management approach maximizes our value to the Congress by leveraging the
knowledge, skills, and experience of all employees to ensure the highest
quality products and services and to help the Congress address the
challenging, complex, multidimensional problems facing the nation.
Throughout fiscal year 2000, we also continued to improve our use of
information technology as a tool for productivity and knowledge management.
To provide our teams of analysts with a mechanism for simplifying and
standardizing their work, we launched the Electronic Assistance Guide for
Leading Engagements--the EAGLE, which is a prototype of a comprehensive Web-
based guide to conducting GAO engagements. We also continued to enhance the
capabilities of our computer network and successfully made our systems Y2K
compliant. In addition, we began a number of projects on enabling
technologies, including software upgrades, the deployment of notebook
computers, and improved remote access to allow teams to work more
efficiently in the
10
field. Also, to carry out GAO?s responsibilities under the Presidential
Transition Act of 2000, we developed a separate section on our Internet web
site with links to key GAO contacts and reports on the major executive
branch agencies, which was completed at the beginning of fiscal year 2001.
FISCAL YEAR 2001 PLANS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
During fiscal year 2001, we will continue to focus our work on the major
issues facing the Congress, including Social Security solvency, education,
economic development, Medicare reform, national security, international
affairs, and government management reforms and computer security. Another
top priority this year will be working with leaders on the Hill to help the
Congress strengthen its approach to oversight, with an emphasis on looking
hard at what government does, how it does it, and the long-term consequences
of today?s policy choices. GAO?s 2001 Performance and Accountability Series
and High-Risk Update will serve as a solid foundation for congressional
oversight. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we have several key initiatives in
progress to improve how we serve the Congress, among them an expanded client
feedback system; protocols governing our dealings with federal agencies; new
high-level advisory bodies to gain the expertise of business leaders, former
Cabinet officials, and other experts; and new avenues for sharing our own
expertise with other accountability organizations.
We also are preparing to carry out two new responsibilities mandated by the
previous Congress. We will chair a panel to review the government?s A-76
process for obtaining services through competitive sourcing. Also, if the
needed funding is provided, we will review the costs and benefits of major
regulations under the Truth in Regulating Act (P.L. 106-312, Oct. 17, 2000).
We have a request pending for $2.6 million in supplemental funding for
fiscal year 2001 and are requesting $5.2 million for fiscal year 2002 to
meet the requirements created by the Truth in Regulating Act.
Internally, we will continue to emphasize initiatives to address our two
major management challenges: human capital and information technology. With
about 80 percent of our resources devoted to staff salary and benefits, the
area of human capital presents a major challenge. A significant percentage
of our workforce is nearing retirement age, while marketplace, demographic,
economic, and technological changes indicate that competition for skilled
workers will be greater in the future. With our agency realigned to
facilitate our work for the Congress and new legislative authority in hand
to manage our workforce more effectively, we are pursuing several
initiatives to strengthen our human capital. For example, we are recruiting
diverse, high- caliber staff with the skills and abilities we need to
achieve our strategic goals and objectives. We will be putting into place a
competency-based performance appraisal system and using the results of our
staff knowledge and skills inventory to help us in workforce planning. We
also have reestablished and are expanding training opportunities for our
staff-from the senior executives to the new hires.
Another major management challenge is building an integrated and reliable
information technology (IT) infrastructure that supports the achievement of
our goals. We are conducting a comprehensive IT review to identify
opportunities to increase our efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity.
We also are mapping our business processes to our IT architecture and will
link
11
future IT investments to our business goals. In addition, we plan to
continue initiatives to increase our employees? productivity, maximize the
use of technology, and enhance the Web- based knowledge-sharing applications
on the desktop. Last, we also must heighten the security of our network.
FY 2002 BUDGET REQUEST
To fully support the Congress as outlined in our strategic plan and the
additional congressional mandates received since its issuance, we are
requesting a budget for fiscal year 2002 of about $430.3 million. This
funding level will allow us to support and staff to our targeted level of
3,275 full-time equivalent personnel. We will increase our emphasis on areas
of congressional and public interest and, internally, will continue to
emphasize initiatives to address our two major management challenges: human
capital and information technology. Our request also includes $5.2 million
to carry out new responsibilities created by the Truth in Regulating Act. In
addition, we are seeking a nominal increase in GAO?s representation
expenses, from $10,000 to $12,500, to accommodate our expanded role with
both domestic and international accountability organizations.
Additional funding in fiscal year 2002 is being requested for: mandatory pay
and benefit costs resulting primarily from federal cost-of-living and
locality pay adjustments, based on Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
guidance, increased participation in the Federal Employees Retirement
System, and an increase in the estimated number of retirees--$17,554,000;
uncontrollable inflationary increases in transportation, lodging, postage,
printing, supplies, contracts, and other essential mission support services,
based on OMB?s 2- percent inflation index and other factors--$1,565,000; and
uncontrollable contract rate increases in building operations and
maintenance and information technology programs--$1,453,000.
Funding of $8,004,000 for salaries and benefits also is being requested to
staff and support our targeted 3,275 full-time equivalent staffing level. We
plan to use these resources to enhance our review efforts in areas of
congressional and public interest and concern, such as government computer
security, Social Security solvency, education, economic development,
Medicare reform, and international affairs.
The additional funds requested also would be used to continue initiatives
begun in fiscal year 2000 that are critical to supporting the Congress and
the goals and objectives identified in our strategic plan. These initiatives
include human capital initiatives and enabling technological advances to
enhance the performance and productivity of our workforce as follows.
12
Human capital initiatives--$3,324,000:
- Mass transit subsidy allowance comparable to the mandatory benefit
provided in the executive branch--$1,500,000;
- Performance-based recognition and compensation programs--$1,014,000;
- Training and professional development activities to continue efforts begun
in fiscal year 2000 to address skill gaps, maximize staff productivity and
effectiveness, and update our training curriculum to address organizational,
change management, and technical needs of both individuals and the agency--
$400,000;
- Education loan repayments to provide recruitment and retention incentives
and benefits comparable to the executive branch--$410,000.
Enabling technology initiatives to increase employee productivity, maximize
the use of technology, and enhance employee tools available at the desktop,
including such initiatives as reengineering business processes, upgrading
hardware and software applications, expanding our videoconferencing
capabilities, and implementing a best practices network security
program--$2,585,000.
Other efforts include: Enhancing security and removing asbestos within the
GAO Building to protect the health and safety of our most important
asset-our staff--$2,839,000;
Upgrading GAO?s computer security facility to ensure our continued ability
to conduct effective, comprehensive computer security controls testing of
complex, diverse, and interconnected executive branch systems and to attract
and retain skilled, technical staff--$750,000;
Enhancing the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institution?s
efforts to combat government related corruption around the world,
multi-lateral training efforts with eastern-bloc and selected South and
Latin American countries, and bilateral assistance to Russia--$250,000; and
Contracting for the development of a requirements document to be used along
with other legislative branch agencies to jointly procure and share a common
financial management system--$250,000.
In addition, as previously mentioned, we are requesting $5.2 million to
provide the annual funding requirement specified in the Truth in Regulating
Act.
13
BUDGET REQUEST CRITICAL TO SUSTAINING EXISTING LEVEL OF SERVICE TO THE
CONGRESS
The resources we are requesting for fiscal year 2002 are critical to
addressing our human capital and information technology challenges and
ensuring our ability to effectively meet the increasing congressional
requests for GAO services. We have reached a point that if sufficient
funding is not received to address these issues and properly support our
staff, we will need to take actions that will negatively impact our service
and responsiveness to the Congress.
Congressional demand for GAO services continues to increase. For example, as
illustrated below, the number of engagements begun as a result of a
congressional request has increased during the past 4 years. These numbers
do not include hundreds of other requests that had not yet been started.
New Congressional Engagement Starts (Fiscal Years 1997- 2000)
1,440 1,638 1,549 1,820 0 500
1,000 1,500
2,000 1998 1999 2000
F iscal year 4,600
4,342 19973,677
3,341 3,245 3,275 3,192
3,155 4,626
3,600 3,500 3,325 3,275
3,275 Number of engagements
We have worked hard over the past 3 years with available resources to
significantly increase our productivity levels to successfully meet
increasing congressional demand. For example, we realigned our organization,
reengineered many of our business processes, retooled our engagement and
risk management practices, revised our performance appraisal and recognition
systems, and updated our information technology infrastructure. However, we
have reached a point that significant additional productivity gains are
unlikely without sufficient funding to further enhance our human capital and
information technology programs.
We are concerned about our ability to continue to increase our productivity
levels, sustain our return on investment, and meet future congressional
demands given the recent trend in our funding levels. Since becoming the
Comptroller General at the beginning of fiscal year 1999, I have not asked
for any increase in our targeted 3,275 full-time equivalent staffing level.
I have
14
only requested the funding necessary to properly maintain and support this
staffing level and cover mandatory expenses, including inflation and
compensation costs. However, as illustrated in the following graphic, the
funding GAO received has been significantly less than what we requested and
needed to support our targeted staffing level.
Funding Requested and Received (Fiscal Years 1999 - 2001)
$369,728 $388,448
$402,918 $387,020 $378,961
$362,953 $340,000 $360,000
$380,000 $400,000
$420,000 1999 2000 2001
Fiscal year Requested funding Funding received $ in thousands
In order to cover our mandatory expenses during the past 3 years, we had to
staff well below our targeted staffing level, as illustrated on the
following page, and delayed or made reduced investments in important human
capital and information technology initiatives. As a result of these funding
shortfalls and the mandated funding reductions in the mid-1990s, our
training and performance-based recognition and rewards programs are not
where they need to be. Consequently, we are at a competitive disadvantage
with the executive branch in some areas, such as performance rewards. In
addition, we have some management information systems that are obsolete and
incapable of interfacing within our network environment and a variety of
software that needs to be upgraded to ensure continued vendor maintenance
and support. We cannot continue down this path. We have reached the point at
which investments in these critical programs and other areas must be made in
order to effectively support our staff and provide the high level of service
expected and required by the Congress.
15
FTEs Requested and Used (Fiscal Years 1999 - 2001) 3,325
3,275 3,275 3,155 3,192 3,275
3 ,000 3 ,200
3 ,400 1999 2000 2001
Fiscal year FTEs Requested FTEs Used Number of FTEs
The funds we are requesting are critical to addressing our succession
planning challenges and enhancing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of
our workforce. A large percentage of our workforce will become eligible for
retirement within the next 5 years. More than 35 percent of our analysts and
50 percent of our senior executives will be retirement eligible within that
time period. We need to aggressively continue our efforts to hire new staff,
develop existing staff, and otherwise build the future GAO. In order to be
competitive in attracting, hiring, and retaining high caliber and talented
staff, we need to be able to further enhance our human capital programs.
Thus, the funding we are requesting for training, performance-based
recognition and compensation programs, education loan repayments, mass
transit subsidy allowance, and enabling technology is critical. Without such
funding, we will not be competitive in attracting and retaining the best,
brightest, and expertise needed to effectively serve the Congress in
addressing the complex, controversial, and multidimensional issues and
challenges it faces each year.
If the funding trend of the past 3 years is continued, we will need to
restrict our work to only responding to requests from committees and
subcommittees, thus severely limiting-and potentially eliminating-work done
for individual members. Such a restriction also would further reduce the
limited flexibility we have to research and develop expertise on emerging
issues, thereby limiting our ability to respond to the Congress when related
issues arise on short notice. For example, were it not for the advance
research and development work we had done on computer security, China, the
World Trade Organization, and last year?s presidential election issues, we
would have been unable to be responsive to the congressional requests and
public debates on these real time, event driven issues. We need sufficient
funding to build and ensure we have the capacity and expertise to address
such emerging issues on short notice in the future.
16
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Fiscal year 2000 was a tremendous year of accomplishment and achievement for
GAO - a year of great service to the Congress and of great benefit to the
American taxpayer. We have made significant progress in addressing many of
the areas in need of improvement in GAO and need to continue these efforts.
The resources we are requesting for fiscal year 2002 are critical to
sustaining our high-level of performance and service to the Congress. We are
the nation?s and possibly the world?s leading accountability organization.
We need these additional resources to continue our efforts to further
strengthen GAO and be a model organization for the rest of the federal
government and accountability organizations around the world. In addition,
given GAO?s impressive results and return on investment, it only makes sense
for GAO to receive resource allocations that are well above average for
other federal entities. To do otherwise would send a troubling message to
GAO?s employees, the press, and the public.
We look forward to your continued support and working even more closely with
you and your staff this year and in fiscal year 2002. This concludes my
statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that the Members
of the Subcommittee may have.
*** End of document. ***