Summary

GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) first-year progress in implementing the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act and its reporting on the status of internal controls and accounting systems.

GAO found that GSA followed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance and: (1) established a central authority for providing leadership to implement the act; (2) held individual managers accountable for internal control through their annual performance contracts; (3) identified all its programs and functions and assessed their vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, and abuse; (4) ranked the programs and functions for further review; (5) reviewed the most vulnerable operations to list known weaknesses and assess their significance; and (6) required its senior managers to provide assurances on the adequacy of internal controls. GAO identified several aspects of the internal control evaluation process that need to be strengthened including: (1) a better definition of programs and functions being evaluated; (2) coordination to provide a more complete evaluation of activities; (3) more complete information in vulnerability assessments; (4) more complete documentation and monitoring; and (5) better management guidance. Finally, GAO found that GSA needs to establish responsibilities throughout the agency for meeting the annual reporting requirements and expand its evaluation efforts to provide a better basis for determining if its accounting systems comply with the Comptroller General's principles and standards.