United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2004-11-30 monographic deposited born digital 27 p. GA 1.13:GAO-05-58 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58 P0b002ee18038c394 f:d0558 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58 GAO-05-58 Administrative costs Agricultural programs Budget outlays Comparative analysis Computer modeling Conservation Cost analysis Financial management Financial management systems Future budget projections Technical assistance Work measurement Program costs Workloads Cost estimates Other Written Product A13996 The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), working with state and local partners, provides landowners with technical assistance for multiple programs to plan and implement conservation measures that protect soil, water, and wildlife. For years, the Congress has been seeking detailed cost information on this assistance as it examined USDA budget requests. In part, because NRCS's financial system was not designed for estimating future budgets, in 1998 NRCS began developing additional cost data and a computer model for estimating future technical assistance costs. GAO was asked to (1) review NRCS's technical assistance cost estimates and (2) identify causes of any differences between the estimates and actual costs ultimately reported by NRCS. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58.pdf GAO-05-58 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-58 Other Written Product GAO-05-58; Agricultural Conservation: USDA Should Improve Its Methods for Estimating Technical Assistance Costs; Administrative costs Agricultural programs Budget outlays Comparative analysis Computer modeling Conservation Cost analysis Financial management Financial management systems Future budget projections Technical assistance Work measurement Program costs Workloads Cost estimates Public Law 103-354