(AFTERNOON SESSION, 1 P.M., MONDAY, MAY 10, 1982)

GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES A. BOWSHER, COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

ACCOMPANIED BY:

MILTON J. SOCOLAR, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL AND GENERAL COUNSEL

RICHARD L. BROWN, CONTROLLER

PREPARED STATEMENT

Senator MATTINGLY. The subcommittee will come to order.

This afternoon we will hear from the General Accounting Office on their request for fiscal year 1983 and the 1982 supplemental appropriations. We welcome you, Mr. Bowsher. If you would like, you can read your entire statement, or hopefully, you will condense it. It has been given to us. We can go to questions.

Your entire prepared statement will be inserted in the record at this point. [The statement follows:]

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STATEMENT OF CHARLES A. BOWSHER

I am pleased to be here today to discuss GAO's budget request for FY 1983. The "Justification of Estimates for FY 83," which you already have, describes our request in detail.

This is my first opportunity to discuss with you GAO's resource needs. I look forward to a positive, constructive relationship with the Subcommittee during my tenure as Comptroller General. Since taking office in October 1981, I have been meeting with staff to familiarize myself with how GAO goes about doing its work. That effort has helped me crystalize some issues and problems that I want to address during my first several years as Comptroller General. There is no doubt that GAO's most important role is to provide timely assistance to the Congress on relevant issues. I have been impressed with the willingness of the GAO staff to do whatever is necessary to provide the Congress useful information. But I have also been impressed by the speed of events and the needs of Congress for information. I want us to do a better job of getting the Congress information when it needs it. I want, therefore, to explore different ways to present our information to meet this objective.

I want GAO to continue to be the Congress' greatest asset in its efforts to achieve better economy and efficiency in Federal operations. time, Governmentwide responsibility to help Congress find

GAO is the one Federal agency with full

ways to reduce Federal spending and make Government work better. GAO's record shows that it has consistently made recommendations which have saved the Government many times its appropriation.

For example, action taken by the Congress and the executive branch in fiscal year 1981 on GAO recommendations saved the Government about $8.5 billion. About $7.6 billion in savings resulted from congressional actions on GAO recommendations,

while another $890 million resulted from executive branch actions. GAO's fiscal year 1981 appropriation was about

$220 million.

agencies.

Last fiscal year GAO issued 578 reports containing about 2,500 recommendations to the Congress and the heads of executive To date, about 70 percent of these recommendations have already influenced improved Government operations. Over the last 5 years (FY 77-81), congressional and agency actions on GAO recommendations which can be quantified saved $24 for each dollar appropriated to GAO. We will continue to make sure the Congress gets its money's worth out of GAO.

PROGRAM EMPHASIS

To do so, we must explore new ways and develop new
In that regard, during the past year we have:

initiatives.

--Established a special defense budget task force to
closely monitor how the Defense Department spends
the additional monies appropriated to it by the
Congress. Both Senate and House Committees have
asked GAO for extensive additional information to
assist them in looking more closely at defense activi-
ties and the defense budget.

--Established a multiyear plan for auditing the new
block grant programs passed by the Congress.
Since the States are to be provided much greater
flexibility than they had under categorical grants,
determinations relating to their accountability
will have to be carefully considered and a uniform
conception of audit responsibilities will have to
be developed. We have had discussions with

numerous congressional staff about our block grant

audit activities so we can be most responsive to their

information needs.

95-563 O 82 11

--Established several new initiatives to improve GAO's ability to assess the overall management of Federal agencies. We should be in a position to report to the Congress and executive agency heads periodically on how well agencies are managed overall from planning, budget formulation, financial management, procurement, personnel management, audit and inspections, management information system, and program evaluation perspectives.

In addition to these new initiatives, GAO will continue its efforts to carry out its basic mission effectively.

--I have stressed that all GAO assignments undertaken
pursuant to our basic statutes should have a direct
bearing on improved management or better redistribu-
tion of existing Federal funds for Federal programs
or activities, or should make a direct and important
contribution on a major issue expected to be debated
before the Congress within the next 2 to 3 years.

--I want GAO to do more to improve financial manage-
ment in the Government. Too often top managers
have not given sufficient attention to the benefits
that can accrue from having sound financial manage-
ment systems. We need to do a better job of alerting
them to these benefits and of working with the
agencies to approve and implement, on a more timely
basis, sound financial management reporting systems.

--I want GAO to continue to improve its capability to
provide timely, relevant reports on the results of
programs and ways to make them more effective.

We must do a better job of following up on our recommendations to assure that agencies are giving them proper consideration. Consistent with this emphasis is our need to make

relevant recommendations and identify the underlying causes of

the problems we uncover. We are analyzing open recommendations more systematically with the aid of our computerized document

system and monitoring detailed agency responses to OMB on the status of implementing GAO recommendations. We will also provide congressional committees specific reports detailing open recommendations relevant to their areas of interest.

ORGANIZATIONAL STABILITY

I have also identified some problems and concerns about the GAO that need to be addressed. My most fundamental concern is that I be able to work with a relatively stable organization in terms of staff levels. We should not only continue to foster economy and efficiency in other Government operations, but we should also look critically at our own operations and resources so that we focus on those issues most relevant and timely to the Congress. During my tenure I intend to look closely at GAO's staffing level to assure that the funding we seek is the minimum necessary to do our work effectively.

The details of our request for the fiscal year 1982 supplemental and our fiscal year 1983 budget explain why I believe our budget request is the minimum level necessary to provide stability.

Fiscal Year 1982 Supplemental

I am greatly concerned that the funding already provided for fiscal year 82 will not support the 5,100 staff-year level recommended by the Congress and that resulting staff reductions will significantly disrupt our ongoing operations. We have restricted our hiring, but attrition has fallen below the level anticipated in the budget approved by the Congress for the year. We will do what we can to avoid a deficiency situation, but our funding is very tight.

The lack of adequate funding creates instability and uncertainty in job assignments and affects our ability to get jobs