Department of Veterans Affairs' Lack of Timely and Accurate	 
Information on Unexpended Balances Limits Effective Management	 
and Congressional Oversight (16-MAY-07, GAO-07-410R).		 
                                                                 
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) holds about 5 percent of 
the real property owned by the federal government in terms of	 
building floor area, including such facilities as hospitals and  
office buildings. VA's responsibility for managing its real	 
property includes the construction of its facilities and	 
cemeteries. Because these construction projects can span several 
years, VA is authorized to carry forward fund balances from year 
to year in its construction accounts. VA is responsible for	 
keeping track of and managing these balances to ensure that any  
unexpended balances that remain after construction projects are  
completed are redirected to other construction project needs	 
within the agency. VA's budgets for new construction exist in two
accounts--Major Construction and Minor Construction--which are	 
funded as separate line items within the appropriation. For	 
purposes of this report, we refer to the Major and Minor	 
Construction accounts as VA's construction accounts. Construction
projects undertaken to replace existing facility components are  
funded through the Non-Recurring Maintenance (NRM) portion of the
Medical Facilities budget account. For purposes of this report,  
we refer to the NRM as VA's facility account. Under the 	 
Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own
initiative, and as part of a continued effort to assist Congress 
in overseeing real property management issues, we examined VA's  
management of unexpended construction balances. Specifically, we 
addressed the following question: To what extent does VA have	 
readily available information about unexpended balances in its	 
construction and facility accounts to effectively manage these	 
funds?								 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-07-410R					        
    ACCNO:   A69691						        
  TITLE:     Department of Veterans Affairs' Lack of Timely and       
Accurate Information on Unexpended Balances Limits Effective	 
Management and Congressional Oversight				 
     DATE:   05/16/2007 
  SUBJECT:   Budget obligations 				 
	     Budget outlays					 
	     Budgeting						 
	     Facility construction				 
	     Financial management				 
	     Financial statements				 
	     Funds management					 
	     Program evaluation 				 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     Unexpended budget balances 			 
	     Unobligated budget balances			 
	     Veterans benefits					 
	     Policies and procedures				 

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Product.                                                 **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO-07-410R

   

     * [1]VA Lacks Readily Available, Accurate Data on Unexpended Bala
     * [2]PDF6-Ordering Information.pdf

          * [3]Order by Mail or Phone

May 16, 2007

Congressional Committees

Subject: Department of Veterans Affairs' Lack of Timely and Accurate
Information on Unexpended Balances Limits Effective Management and
Congressional Oversight

*** End of document. ***