U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE PROGRAM AND PERFORMANCE INTRODUCTION This section describes CAO's overall work plan and the staff resources required in FY 1980. Using an Office-wide perspective, it: The staff requirements of the various divisions and offices by which GAO's work is carried out are detailed in sections following this one. Those sections identify specific division and office responsibilities and indicate the resources that will be required to fulfill them. THE STATUS OF GAO FUNDING AND STAFF YEAR REQUIREMENTS FOR FY 1979 For FY 1979, GAO requested $187.8 million to fund 5,264 staff years, an increase of 120 staff years over those that we had been authorized for FY 1978. The appropriations committee authorized the 5,264 staff years that we had requested but approved only half-year funding for the 120 staff year increase over FY 1978 levels. While this action called for a significant adjustment in our plans, we felt we could accommodate it because we would have the full benefit in the following year, 1.e., FY 1980. However, the Fiscal Year 1979 Legislative Branch Appropriation Act withheld from obligation and expenditure 5 percent of the total amounts approved except for payments required by law. This action brought to $176.5 million the resources available to GAO in FY 1979--a level which would provide resources for only 5,100 staff years. This is 44 staff years less than FY 1978 levels. This would, we believe, seriously jeopardize GAO's ability to carry out our responsibilities. Consequently, we have--in a separate "Justification of Request for Supplemental Appropriations"--asked for a total of $5.5 million to provide the additional resources needed to fund 5,182 staff years in FY 1979. While this staff year level will fall well short of our FY 1979 requirements, it will permit us to have 5,350 staff on rolls at the end of FY 1979 and provide a base permitting us to realize the 5,350 staff years that constitute a minimum level of coverage in FY 1980. NEED FOR ADDITIONAL STAFF RESOURCES IN FY 1980 New workload, occurring since GAO's last budget submission, will impose substantial additional FY 1980 requirements as follows: --Specific Mandates. These are requirements for GAO audit and evaluation work included in recently enacted legislation and congressional actions such as committee reports and House and Senate Resolutions. Workload requirements specifically mandated since our FY 1979 budget request was prepared will require 213 staff years in FY 1980. --Legislation Creating New or Expanding Existing Federal Programs. --Committee and Member Requests. Based on our present knowledge and Taken together, these new demands constitute a known FY 1980 workload increase of 350 staff years above those on which our FY 1979 budget request was based. Our actual FY 1980 increase in workload will, however, be greater than this. Between now and FY 1980 further new legislation will undoubtedly place additional signficant workload demands on GAO. Consistent with our long-standing policy, we have made no provision in our request for resources to meet requirements of any legislation that has not been enacted no matter how likely its passage now seems. We are requesting funding to support 5,350 staff years in FY 1980. This is an increase of 86 staff years above the 5,264 authorized--but not wholly funded--for FY 1979 and 168 staff years over the 5,182 for which we are requesting supplemental funding in that year. It is a minimal request based on clearly established workload increases over which we have virtually no control. UNCONTROLLABLE NATURE OF INCREASED WORKLOAD As indicated above, even with the additional 168 staff years that we are requesting for FY 1980, we will need to absorb substantial workload increases by reprogramming from or further deferring work required by our basic statutes. We believe it is important that we receive the additional resources to fund the 168 staff years that we are requesting to meet those requirements of increased workload which cannot be deferred and cannot be met in any other way. GAO's responsibility for the audit and evaluation of virtually all Federal agencies and programs is a workload that continues from year to year. New legislation which adds, modifies or expands Federal programs is enacted each year. These Congressional actions expand GAO's total workload. They increase the total "universe" over which we are required, by our basic legislation, to provide adequate and effective audit coverage. When we do not receive the resources to meet additional requirements we dilute our ability to meet all of our responsibilities. In developing GAO's budget, we keep our resource requests as small as we can through effective planning and work scheduling. But this simply underscores the importance of receiving the resource increases that we do request. LEGISLATION MANDATING SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES TO GAO Legislation and committee reports frequently require GAO to make particular studies or audits. They involve specific onetime requirements which need to be met in a stated time frame--usually by a specific date. The following are illustrative of the specific legislative mandates which will require increased resources in FY 1980 that were enacted since we made our last budget submission. -The Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (P.L. 95-320, 7/21/78) directs the --FY 1978 Amendments to the Small Business Act (P.L. 95-507, 10/24/78) -The Civil Service Reform Legislation (P.L. 95-454, 10/13/78), representing a major Congressional and Administration effort to improve the Civil Service System, imposes a number of substantial specific responsibilities on GAO. GAO has long been interested in, and has done extensive work pointing toward, civil service reform and increased employee productivity. We will, therefore, have a substantial head start in meeting our responsibilities under P.L. 95-454. Nevertheless, our response to the requirements of this Act will require 40 additional staff years in FY 1980. --Federal Government Pension Plan Reporting (P.L. 95-595, 11/4/78) requires GAO to audit the financial activities of the pension plans. We will need to establish accounting principles for the plans and to audit the reports, including financial and actuarial statements, furnished annually by the agencies and instrumentalities operating the plans. We also have program audit authority over the pension plans and funds. In all, our work in response to this Act will require 33 staff years in FY 1980. -Ethics in Government Act of FY 1978 (P.L. 95-521, 10/26/78) requires us, by November 30, 1980, to study the legislative branch's financial disclosure system to see if provisions are being carried out and financial reports are being filed as required. The first study is to include GAO recommendations on the feasibility of and potential need for a requirement that systematic random audits be conducted --The Nuclear Anti-Proliferation Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-242, 3/10/78) --House Conference Report on Education Amendments of 1978 (House Report Six additional pieces of legislation and reports of conference committees will require 28 staff years of audit and evaluation work in FY 1980. LEGISLATION CREATING OR EXPANDING FEDERAL PROGRAMS With only very minor exceptions, GAO is required to audit and evaluate the operations of all Federal agencies and their programs. Our basic 1921 legislation--reemphasized by various pieces of additional legislation through the years--gives us this massive audit and evaluation responsibility over the range of Federal activities. This total workload remains in place from year to year. In effect, our basic legislation requires us to obtain the resources that are needed and to use them in a way that provides meaningful audit and evaluation coverage over our total workload. Each new piece of legislation, which adds a new program, or modifies or expands an existing one, effectively increases our total workload whether or not it specifically calls for GAO audit. GAO's FY 1980 workload has been increased by 6 pieces of new legislation which, while not mandating GAO work, nevertheless requires audit attention in FY 1980. Our analysis of this new legislation points out that we will need to use 31 staff years in FY 1980. A few examples of such legislation which was enacted since our last request for resources was made include the following: --The National Climate Program Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-367, 9/17/78). --Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-460, 10/14/78). Some 10 staff years will be used in FY 1980 to determine the effectiveness of this Act in meeting difficulties in determining the ownership of agricultural land by foreign nationals. --The Natural Gas Provisions of the National Energy Act (P.L. 95-621, 11/9/78). This Act requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to implement the requirement that high priced gas supplies be incrementally priced to large scale industrial users. It also includes provisions concerning natural gas curtailment policies. About 8 35-533 79 - 47 (Pt. 2) staff years will need to be used in FY 1980 on work related to the provisions of this Act. --Omnibus Parks Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-625,11/10/78). This Act includes 150 projects in 44 states. It provides for major new urban park additions, expands the boundaries of existing national parks, creates new wilderness areas, and adjusts the cost ceiling of several park service units. This legislation increases the work that GAO needs to do in FY 1980 by 5 staff years. REQUESTS OF COMMITTEES AND MEMBERS Another of our more important responsibilities--over which we have little or no control--is our response to the requests of Committees and Members of Congress for the performance of particular audits and evaluations usually in a specified time frame. In recent years, these requests have continued to increase in frequency, number and scope. It is clear that further increases will occur in FY 1980. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 directs GAO to respond to the requests of committees. We also try to meet the requests of individual Members in so far as possible. Resource constraints have increasingly made it impossible for us to respond to all of the requests made by Members. For example, in FY 1977 25% of GAO's request work was in response to Member requests. In FY 1978, this had dropped to 22%. We have long worked with Committees and members on individual requests to seek ways in which we can consolidate similar requests for work from different committees or Members. We are frequently able to satisfy request work by expanding or modifying work already in process. And recently completed self-initiated work--which is typically broadly based--frequently meets the needs of individual requestors. Despite this, we will need increased resources in FY 1980 to meet requestors' needs that cannot effectively be met in any other way. ACTIONS TO MINIMIZE--IN SO FAR AS POSSIBLE--THE NEED FOR GAO has in place a planning system by which we determine our resource needs and how resources can best be utilized. A major feature of this planning system is that it defines the issues of current greatest national significance to which GAO can make a substantial contribution. It develops the objectives that can best be sought by audit and evaluation work over a particular period and the lines-of-effort by which they will be achieved. It provides a basis for "orchestrating" the individual assignments of all CAO divisions as they help to achieve basic GAO objectives for each such issue. It is a process which considers the needs of Congress and its committees, audit and evaluation work previously done by GAO or by others in or out of government, and advice and assistance of experts in the field, including those from the congressional support agencies--CBO, CRS, and OTA. D-5 |