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USDA Graduate School: Revenue Reporting Needs to Be Improved

GAO-02-5 Published: Oct 15, 2001. Publicly Released: Oct 15, 2001.
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Highlights

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Graduate School provides extensive training opportunities to government employees and others. As a nonappropriated fund instrumentality, the Graduate School relies solely on income from the training it offers. During fiscal year 1999, the federal agencies GAO reviewed had 20 interagency agreements with the Graduate School totaling about $5.7 million. The agencies also had 531 contracts, totaling $29 million, with private companies for training and related services. The Graduate School's financial statements for fiscal year 1999 incorrectly identified the portion of revenue that was earned through interagency agreements. This misclassification occurred primarily because of the Graduate School's reporting policies.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Graduate School The Executive Director of the Department of Agriculture's Graduate School should revise the Graduate School's current financial reporting policy to ensure that the revenue line items are properly presented in the school's financial statements.
Closed – Implemented
The USDA has changed its reporting format to address the recommendations made in this report.

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Topics

EducationFinancial statementsInteragency relationsNonappropriated fund instrumentalitiesSchoolsInteragency agreementsFederal agenciesCensusRural economic developmentDeposit insurance