Requester Influence Question 16 16. To what degree do Congressional requesters sometimes try to strongly influence the results of your work? Please describe generally the kinds of situations that arise. In their discussions with GAO staff, congressional requesters and their staff sometimes express their views on such things as assignment scope, methods, and timing, as well as the outcomes they expect from work we are doing pursuant to their requests. We are rarely--though it has happened--pressured by staff to report against our convictions. This occurs, not by threat or coercion, but by somewhat excessive efforts to persuade us. However, we do not see this as a major problem. Most requesters, particularly repeat customers, are aware that GAO's traditions of independence and objectivity are jealously guarded and that they should be willing to accept the answers at which we arrive. We expect our staff to take into account the legitimate views and suggestions of the requesters in designing, implementing, and reporting on our work. But, when we undertake a request assignment, we make it clear that we must be able to perform the work in accordance with applicable Government Auditing Standards and our own quality standards, and that the conclusions and recommendations we report must be those considered appropriate in light of the evidence gathered and without regard to anyone's preconceptions. Executive Branch Interface Question 17 In the conduct of analyses, reviews, or evaluations that relate to Executive Branch agencies, describe how you interface with the Executive Branch agencies that are the subject of your work. Do you allow Executive Branch agencies to comment on your work prior to publication? If yes, describe the process. If no, why not? Do you allow Congressional requesters to comment on your work prior to publication? If yes, please give some details. When GAO initiates an audit/evaluation at an executive agency, it sends the agency head a letter announcing the effort and specifying the broad objectives of the assignment. Subsequently, the key members of the audit team will meet with key executive agency representatives for a more detailed discussion of the assignment's scope and objectives. At this time, agreements are usually reached on how the key executive agency representatives will be kept informed of the progress of the audit/evaluation. The audit team will then conduct its evaluation and begin forming its conclusions. Once the audit work is completed and the audit team has agreed on the findings and conclusions to be contained in the report, an exit conference with executive agency representatives will be conducted. The purpose of the exit conference is to discuss what the audit team found and to ensure that the audit team has all pertinent information relative to its findings. GAO prefers to obtain written comments on a draft report but will accept oral comments when the officials can speak for the affected executive agency. If the assignment is being conducted for a congressional requester, GAO will provide (if requested) an information copy of the draft to the requester. While we neither solicit nor encourage comments from the requesters, we will consider any comments provided, particularly when they involve matters of clarity or completeness of presentation. Implementing Recommendations Question 18 How frequently does Congress, in a concrete way, try to have your recommendations for changes in Executive Branch activities implemented? How is this done? What percentage of your reports result in concrete action by the Congress? We track all of the recommendations we make to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government and others. The Congress, through its legislative, appropriations and oversight responsibilities, can encourage the executive branch agencies to implement GAO's recommendations. However, we are unable to quantify how often this happens. All heads of federal agencies are required by 31 U.S.C. 720 to submit a written statement on actions taken on our recommendations to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, the House Committee on Government Operations, and to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. Over the past 4 years (FY 1989-FY 1992), GAO made 6,140 recommendations. Of these recommendations 977 were to legislative branch agencies, which includes the Congress (942), the Government Printing Office (22), and the Library of Congress (13). By the end of Fiscal Year 1992, about 55 percent of all recommendations made to the legislative branch and about 75 percent to the total government in 1989 have been implemented. Overall, GAO's monitoring shows that between 75 to 80 percent of its recommendations are implemented. On average, it takes about 3 to 4 years for agencies to fully implement and GAO to recognize that its recommendations have been fully implemented. It is important to note that many of GAO's reports do not contain recommendations. While we can not measure the extent to which these reports are used by Congress, we expect that they are useful and I may also lead to change. |