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GAO Comptroller General Decisions: Search Tips

GPO signed a partnership agreement with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide permanent public access to the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database on the GAO Web site. Under this agreement, GAO agrees to provide storage capacity and user access without restrictions on re-dissemination.

The GAO database on GPO Access is provided as an archive of the content as it was at the time the agreement was signed on September 19, 2008. For these and more recent reports, visit the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database on the GAO Web site.

The following sample searches are provided as guides to popular types of searches in the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database. For the sake of space, only the top three or four hits in each results list are included with each example below.

Note: The results of these sample searches are described as they appear on the Web interface. The display of the results may vary for users of the WAIS client and SWAIS software.

Fielded Searches | Sample Searches | Identification Codes

Fielded Searches

A fielded-search page is provided for the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database. Fielded searches allow you to make your search more specific by limiting your results by pre-selected elements, such as title, decision number, and issue date. The fields for the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database are as follows:

• Title: Search for words or phrases from the title of the decision.

• B-Number: Search for a decision by its number. Be sure to enclose the entire B-number in quotation marks and to include all hyphens. This type of search is not case-sensitive.

• Issue Date: Search by decision date.

You may also search the full text of the GAO Comptroller General decisions. This type of search returns all documents that contain the word(s) you enter as your query term(s). (See Search by Subject below for more information about full-text searches.)

Sample Searches (4)

The following sample searches are provided as guides to popular types of searches in the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database.

Subject | Title | B-Number | Issue Date

1. Search by Subject

This type of search returns documents that include the words you entered as your search terms. These words may be located anywhere within the document. Be sure to enter this type of query in the full-text search box.

Query:	"environmental compliance" AND westinghouse
Alternative:	environmental ADJ compliance AND westinghouse
Results:	[B-280928; B-280928.2; B-28092] Westinghouse Government and Environmental Services
	[B-277700 ] Chemical Demilitarization Associates, B-277700, November 13, 1997

2. Search by Title

This type of search returns documents based on words or phrases from their titles. Be sure to enter a title query in the appropriate search box to narrow the possibility of extraneous hits. If title words are entered in the full-text search box, the documents that are returned may contain the query terms not only in their titles but also elsewhere in the text.

Query:	"washington utility"
Results:	[B-266333] Washington Utility Group

3. Search by B-Number

This type of search returns documents based on decision number (B-number). The decision number should be enclosed in quotation marks and entered in the B-Number search box.

Query:	"B-279723"
Results:	[B-279723 ] Riveer Company, B-279723, July 14, 1998

4. Search by Issue Date

This type of search returns documents based on decision date. The proper format for dates is mm/dd/yyyy, although single-digit months and days do not need to be preceded by zeros. Be sure to enter an issue date in the appropriate search box and, if applicable, to choose the relevant radio button (e.g., on, before, after).

Query:	12/09/1998
Results:	[B-280872.2; B-280872.3 ] Venture Productions, B-280872.2; B-280872.3, December 9, 1998

Identification Codes

In the list that displays your query results, the title of each GAO Comptroller General Decisions document is preceded by an identification code. The identification code is equivalent to the decision number. For example, in the listing"[B-260748] Tri-State Motor Transit Company," "B-260748" is the decision number, and "Tri-State Motor Transit Company" is the title. Identification codes in the GAO Comptroller General Decisions database are searchable; see Search by B-Number above for more information.

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Last updated: December 9, 2008
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