Improvements in supply fund operation made possible-General Services Administration (nonrecurring)............ .......... Change in accounting procedures to preclude the crediting of prior years' reimbursements to augment current vear appropriations will reduce funding levels for appropriationsDefense (estimated annual savings)....... Equipment not needed at some NASA a uvities was redistributed to others needing the equipment thus avoiding new equipment purchases-NASA (nonret urring)... Implementation of improvements to management and budgetary controls over free assets-Defense (nonrecurring) Savings in subsich costs for servicing from renegotiating repxivment terms of two concessional loans-AID (nonrecurring) ..... Interest cost savings to the Treasury as a result of accelerated deposit of loan collections by the Farmers Home Administration-Agriculture ($2.530.000 estimated annual sav ings: $1.180,000 nonrecurring)........ Interest cost savings to Treasury resulting from elimination of foreign currency accounts maintained at overseas banking organizanons-Army (estimated annual savings) .. New requirements effective October 1, 1978. will reduce purchases from foreign governments of unneeded unserviceable equipment as well as reduce related repair and incidental costs-Air Force ($36.400.000 estimated annual savings: $9.800.000 nonrecurring) Reduction of unneeded equipment buybacks from foreign governments-Air Force (nonrecurring) .. System correction to identify and rebill the cost of Government-furnished material sold to foreign governments-Air Force (nonrecurring) Revised costing procedures for repaired items sold to foreign governments-Air Force ($1.068.000 estimated annual savings: $89.000 nonrecurring) . . . Correction of billings to foreign governments to reflect replacement costs for spare parts support for weapon systems purchased from the U.S.-Air Force (nonrecurring) Billing for port handling charges-Army (nonrecurring) Systems correction to identify contractor assistance costs will allow additional billings to foreign governments-Air Force (nonrecurring) 25,000 15.000.000 ... 72.000 Correction of billings to foreign governments to reflect full replacement cost of stock fund articles sold-Air Force (nonrecurring) Correction of billing to a foreign government to reflect actual procurement cost-Air Force (nonrecurring)........ Identification of reimbursable expenses not reported by DOD activities to the Security Assistance Accounting Center for reimbursement from Foreign Military SalesDefense (nonrecurring). 62.000 13.000 Health Facilities Construction: 22.000 Renovation of existing health facilities at less cost of constructing new facilities-HEW (nonrecurring) 23.200.000 Cancellation of unnecessary research animal breeding facility-HEW (nonrecurring)... 238.000 69.000.000 Loans, Contributions, and Grants: Termination of grants and reprogrammed grant funds-Justice (nonrecurring)... Maintenance: 800.000 Action taken or planned Manpower reductions due to change in inspec tion points-Defense Logistics Agency estimated annual savings) . . . . . . . Reduction in recruit training from 11 to 9 weeks by eliminating nonrelated activities such as mess duty and maintenance workMarine Corps (estimated annual savings). Termination of the Federal Bureau of Invesugation's efforts to routinely apprehend all military deserters since most of them are subsequently discharged as unfit for service-Justice (estimated annual savings) ...... Converting military auditor positions to civilian in the Air Force Audit AgencyAir Force (estimated annual savings) ..... Materiel Management: Estimated savings 7.500.000 6,700.000 5.900.000 2.140.000 Expansion in scope of the Federal survey of private sector white-collar employee compensation to provide broader representation resulted in a lower percentage increase in annual pay raises of Government employees-Government-wide (estimated annual savings).... Costs of foreign national employees of U.S. Armed Forces in Japan reduced by negoti ating the assumption of certain pay and benefit items by the Japanese Government-Defense (estimated annual savings) Revision of DOD regulations to conform to amended legal provisions resulted in increased offset of social security payments against annuities paid to survivors of retired military personnel-Defense (esumated annual savings) ................................................. Revenues: Increase in revenues received for providing consular services to both US. citizens and foreign nationals-State (estimated annual 200.000.000 35.000.000 447.000 .... 1.016.000 326.000 Supply Management: 35.000 1.000.000 10.000.000 Reduction in procurement and repair requirements for aviation repairable parts through improved methods for establishing and maintaining optimum stock levels on board Garners-Navy (nonrecurring) .. Reprogramming of funds to meet the Army's higher priorities needs for ammunition production-Army (nonrecurring).......... Reduction in personnel and mventory of school supplies and improvement of supply management practices-District of Columbia ($150.000 estimated annual savings. $386.000 nonrecuning)... Army troop support and Aviation Readiness Command reduced an unneeded overhand program for AH-16 tulbooms from 3546 4-Army (nonrecurring).. 114.800.000 110,100.000 586.000 230.000 Reduction in funding for short-takeoff and landing technology program-NASA (nonrecurring).. Seat Spacing on Military Airlift Command's trans-atlantic charter flights has been reduced from 38 inches to 34 inches, thus increasing passenger capacity and reducing the number of flights required-Air Force (estimated annual savings)..... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... Reduction in dedicated manpower authorized solely to support distinguished visitors' lounges at 19 passenger terminals operated by the Military Airlift Command-Defense (estimated annual savings)........ The Alaska Railroad increased the rental rates on its land-Transportation (estimated annual savings) The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation established a policy of depositing funds in minority banks within the constraints of good cash management, resulting in increased interest earnings-Transporta tion ($3.000 estimated annual savings: $2.000 nonrecurring)... Veterans Health Care: Reduction in appropriation to eliminate funding for low priority medical facilitiesVeterans Administration (nonrecurring) .. Reduction of indirect costs on VA health manpower training grant awarded to t'niversity of North Dakota-Veterans Administration (nonrecurring) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... 11.000 9.000.000 7.800.000 4.500.000 5.130.000 Weapons Systems: 475.000 5.000 1.500.000 816.000 Federal wheat deficiency payments made at lower rate-Agriculture (nonrecurring) .. Government contributions to Federal Employees Group Life Insurance program reduced by revising the actuarial formula for determining premiums required to main. tain a fiscally sound program-Government-wide (estimated annual savings) .... Appropriations ceiling for the southern Nevada water project was reduced-Interior (nonrecurring).................... Departments of State and Defense concluded a labor cost-sharing agreement with Japan for Japanese national emplovees of U.S. Forces in Japan-Defense (estimated annual savings) Reduction in costs of operating Radio Free 108.000.000 68.588.000 22.577.000 26.000.000 The section 8 leasing program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides financial assistance to supplement the rents paid by lower income families. HUD annually establishes, by market area, fair market rents for various apartment unit sizes and structure types to induce developers to build or rent projects. In a June 16. 1977, report to Congressman Robert S. Walker (CED-77-84) we pointed out that HUD had approved 32 rental assistance contracts in eastern Pennsylvania in which rents set might exceed the fair market rent limitation established by Federal law if the contract's contingency fee provisions were fully exercised. The contingency fee is an estimate of the financing costs to be incurred and may differ from actual financing costs when permanent financing is arranged. This occurred because HUD Philadelphia area office officials were not aware that contingency fees were subject to the limitation. If the full amount of the contingency fees were paid. rent subsidy payments would exceed the limitation by $2 million over the 40 year contract periods for just 2 of the 32 contracts. In this report, we also pointed out that there was a lack of documentation to support fair market rent determinations made for Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Because there were indications that these problems existed in other HUD field offices, we recommended that HUD (1) notify the field offices to include contingency fees in determining whether the fair market rent limitation would be exceeded and (2) revise its regulations to clearly require that adequate documentation be maintained in support of fair market rent determinations. HUD agreed with our recommendations and noti fied its field offices that contingency fees must be considered whether or not the fair market rent limitation has been exceeded and took steps to revise its instructions to require fair market rent documentation. FINANCIAL SAVINGS AND OTHER BENEFITS Reduced Federal Deficiency Payments on Certain Grain Sorghum and Barley Acreage Farm legislation in effect for crop years 1974 through 1977 directed or authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to make deficiency payments to producers of certain crops, including grain sorghum and barley, based on a farm's alloted acreage for each crop whether or not the crops were grown on that acreage. The deficiency payments were to be made for any year in which a target price set in accordance with the law exceeded the higher of either the price-support loan rate or the average market price during the first 5 months of the crop marketing year. In a May 24. 1977, report to the Congress (CED-7777), we recommended that the Congress adopt legislation that would preclude deficiency payments for crops not grown. The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, approved in September 1977, limited deficiency payments beginning with 1978 crops to planted acreage only. For 1977 crops the act continued deficiency payments based on allotted acreage: however, as we recommended, it provided that for those crops, including grain sorghum and barley, for which it raised 1977 target prices above those established under the previous law, any deficiency payment on unplanted allotment acreage would be based on the old. rather than the new, target prices. The Department of Agriculture paid about $228 million in deficiency payments to grain sorghum and barley farmers on their planted allotment acreage in 1977. However, because the price-support loan rates and average prices for these crops were higher than their old target prices, no deficiency payments were made on the unplanted allotment acreage. It was not feasible for us to estimate the savings resulting from requiring use of the old target prices. Such an estimate would have required computing the amounts that thousands of farmers would have received on their unplanted acreage. It also would have required analyzing all their program payments because the law limited the total amount of all payments (except disaster pav ments) at $20,000 for each farmer annually under one or more of the annual programs established for wheat, feed grains, and cotton. However, if the new law's target prices had applied and if there was no payment limitation, the payments on unplanted grain sorghum and barley allotment acreage could have amounted to about $275 million. |