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Summary

We issued an audit report on FAA’s management and controls over national, regional, and local memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). We found FAA’s processes for negotiating, approving, and implementing MOUs outside the national collective bargaining agreement with NATCA were inadequate and that many MOUs had a significant cost and operational impact on the agency. As a result of the audit, FAA undertook an internal review of its MOUs, identifying 14 national and numerous local MOUs that were costly or problematic. FAA and NATCA have since been negotiating to modify or rescind those agreements as part of an agreement “in principle” to extend the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires in September 2003.

We asked FAA to provide us with the status of its negotiations and resolutions of problematic MOUs we identified, its internal review, and the budgetary impact of any unresolved MOUs. We also recommended that FAA undertake an internal evaluation of its new policies and procedures for MOUs to ensure the new procedures have been effective.