United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1996-04-12 monographic deposited born digital 52 p. GA 1.13:RCED-96-57 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57 P0b002ee1803a2162 f:rc96057 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57 RCED-96-57 Budget administration Accounting procedures Federal agency accounting systems Budget reapportionment Budget deficit Deficit reduction Obligated budget balances Presidential budgets DOE Environmental Management Program DOE Nuclear Energy Program Chapter Report RCED GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) approach for identifying carryover balances from previous years' budgets that may be available to reduce budget requests for new fiscal years.<p/>GAO found that: (1) DOE does not use a uniform, effective method of identifying carryover balances; (2) DOE makes separate, general estimates of excess funds in its individual programs; (3) some DOE programs have reduced their carryover balance while others have allowed their carryover balances to increase; (4) DOE annual report on uncosted obligations is not used to identify potential carryover balances because it does not identify all of the carryover balances, identify all of the uncosted obligations that are available to reduce DOE budget request, or include enough information to be useful during the formulation of DOE budget; (5) within DOE, the Office of Waste Management has studied the operations of DOE programs and developed standard expectations for their levels of uncosted obligations; (6) the Office of Waste Management has determined that balances in excess of 1 month's worth of operating activities funding may indicate carryover balances and should be investigated; (7) within DOE, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer has suggested estimating the uncosted obligations at the start of each fiscal year using estimates of yearly costs or past costs; and (8) the various plans developed in DOE have not been implemented department-wide and would need to be altered to fit individual programs. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57.pdf GAO/RCED-96-57 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-57 Chapter Report GAO/RCED-96-57; DOE Management: DOE Needs to Improve Its Analysis of Carryover Balances; Budget administration Accounting procedures Federal agency accounting systems Budget reapportionment Budget deficit Deficit reduction Obligated budget balances Presidential budgets DOE Environmental Management Program DOE Nuclear Energy Program