Agriculture and Food:

Communications Within FmHA

RCED-93-120R, Mar 24, 1993

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed communications between the Farmers Home Administration's (FmHA) national office and FmHA field offices. GAO noted that: (1) FmHA uses data from operating reports to produce budget and cost projections, but the data collected are not accurate; (2) 30 percent of FmHA county offices had inaccurate operating reports; (3) 27 of 46 FmHA state offices believed that national office policies, procedures and instructions were too complicated, poorly explained, and changed too often; and (4) FmHA needs to address internal communications difficulties and convene a working group with representatives from various levels of FmHA county, district, and state offices, as well as the national office.