As part of its Performance and Accountability Series, GAO provided information on the major management challenges and program risks facing the Department of the Treasury.

GAO noted that: (1) the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) faces formidable challenges as it attempts to fulfill its mission while addressing major organizational, management, and performance issues; (2) these issues include the need for: (a) restructuring IRS' organization and business practices to better balance its efforts between taxpayer assistance and enforcement; (b) correcting management and technical weaknesses in its systems modernization efforts; (c) resolving financial management and control weaknesses that affect its ability to adequately manage its financial operations; (d) addressing problems relating to its ability to collect federal tax receivables and other unpaid assessments; (e) assessing the impact of various efforts it has under way to reduce filing fraud; (f) improving security controls over information systems to address weaknesses that place taxpayer data at risk to both internal and external threats; and (g) modifying information systems to properly function in the year 2000; (3) the Customs Service has made significant improvements in its financial management; as a result, GAO has removed it from its list of high-risk federal government programs; (4) however, Customs still needs to address certain challenges related to controlling access to sensitive data in its automated systems and maintaining complete and reliable information in its core financial systems; (5) in addition, GAO's recent work has shown that an incomplete systems architecture has hindered Customs' management of major technology investments, such as its Automated Commercial Environment System; (6) Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) faces challenges in addressing several financial management issues; (7) FMS' ability to prepare reliable consolidated financial statements for the U.S. government is primarily hindered by other federal agencies' weaknesses in recordkeeping, documentation, and internal controls; (8) general computer control weaknesses at FMS and its contractor data centers place the data in its financial systems at significant risk of unauthorized modification, disclosure, loss, or impairment; (9) FMS has experienced some difficulties in effectively fulfilling Treasury's responsibilities under the Debt Collection Improvement Act; (10) at the departmental level, Treasury's financial management weaknesses hinder its ability to maintain reliable financial records on the results of its operations; and (11) the Department's financial management systems did not comply with federal requirements.