October 30, 20000
New Accountability Required of
Executive Branch Agencies
Thompson Bill Requires Agencies to
Inform Congress of Serious
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Problems
Washington, DC - Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN)
today lauded House passage of the Reports Consolidation Act of
2000, legislation to make federal agency annual performance and
financial management reports clearer and more candid. The bill,
S.2712, sponsored by Chairman Thompson, passed the Senate on
July 19 and now goes to the President for his signature.
"This administration has too
often tried to hide the poor management practices of federal
agencies," Chairman Thompson said. "The Reports
Consolidation Act requires that agencies give Congress and the
American people a more accurate picture of the problems they are
facing and what they are achieving - or not achieving - with
taxpayer dollars. These will be vital for Congressional efforts
to instill better performance throughout the federal
government."
The Thompson bill requires that
new information be included in an agency’s annual performance
and financial management report to make the report more
meaningful and hold agencies more accountable. Specifically:
- The consolidated report must
include an assessment by the agency’s Inspector General of
the most serious management and performance problems and
challenges facing the agency and agency’s progress in
resolving them. This will focus more attention on major
problems of fraud, waste and mismanagement that plague
agencies year after year and thereby put more pressure on
agencies to fix them.
- The report must include an
assessment by the agency head of the completeness and
reliability of performance and financial data used in the
report and what the agency is doing to remedy any material
data inadequacies. This will force agencies to be more
candid about the massive problems they face in producing
reliable performance data and pressure them to improve.
According to GAO, only four out of the 24 major federal
agencies now produce credible performance data.
- Beginning in fiscal year 2003,
the consolidated report must be submitted by March 1 of each
year, so that it can be used earlier in the appropriations
process. (Agencies will have until March 31 to submit these
reports in 2001 and 2002.)
"The consolidated and
enhanced reports provided for in S. 2712 should force agencies
to be clearer and more candid about both their real
accomplishments and shortcomings," Thompson said. "We
intend to use this information to praise agencies where they are
doing well and to hold their feet to the fire where they are
not."
The bill also provides permanent
authority for agencies to consolidate into a single annual
report to the Congress separate reports containing key
information about their financial management as well as their
performance results. This single, comprehensive report will make
it easier to tell how well agencies are doing.
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