Forest Service Reforestation Funding: Financial Sources, Uses, and Condition of Knutson-Vandenberg Fund
RCED-96-15
Published: Jun 21, 1996. Publicly Released: Jul 02, 1996.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's Knutson-Vandenberg (K-V) Trust Fund, focusing on: (1) how the Service obtains and uses reforestation funds; and (2) the trust fund's ability to fund all planned projects.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Agriculture | To provide Congress with the information it needs to consider any future requests for appropriations to restore previously transferred funds, the Secretary of Agriculture should report to Congress on the financial status of the K-V fund and the amount and type of K-V projects that will not be completed if the funds transferred to the Emergency Forest Service Firefighting Fund are not restored. |
Closed – Implemented
The Department of Agriculture has partially implemented the recommendation. It has made changes in the Forest Service's justifications for the K-V trust fund furnished to the congressional appropriations committees. In fiscal years 1998 and 1999, the justifications include the status of the K-V trust fund and the current balance owed to the K-V trust fund for prior years borrowing for fighting wildland fires. However, the Department said that it will not prepare a listing of projects detailing precisely what will and will not be accomplished at each sale area if there are not sufficient funds available to completed all of the planned K-V projects.
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| Department of Agriculture | To help ensure that the most critical planned projects can be completed within existing fund limits, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Chief, Forest Service, in the event that the Administration decides not to forward to Congress the USDA request for restoration of the funds transferred for firefighting purposes, or Congress decides not to restore these funds during the FY 1997 budget considerations, to revise by the end of FY 1997 the list of planned K-V projects to take into account the actual balance in the K-V fund. |
Closed – Not Implemented
The Department of Agriculture has not requested restoration of the funds transferred for firefighting purposes, the Congress has not restored the borrowed funds to the K-V trust fund, and the Department did not direct the Chief of the Forest Service to revise the list of planned projects by the end of fiscal year 1997.
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| Department of Agriculture | To help ensure that the most critical planned projects can be completed within existing fund limits, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Chief, Forest Service, to perform, in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer, an analysis of alternatives (including the costs and benefits of each alternative) to obtain the financial data necessary to ensure that K-V Trust Fund expenditures in one sale area would be limited to the amounts collected from that area, as required by the K-V act. |
Closed – Not Implemented
The Department stated that it will not ask the Forest Service to perform an analysis of alternatives to obtain the financial data necessary to ensure that the K-V trust fund expenditures in one sale area would be limited to the amounts collected from that area. The Department believed that the precise accounting systems and administrative controls required to comply with the K-V Act are properly within the realm of the Forest Service.
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| Department of Agriculture | To help ensure that the most critical planned projects can be completed within existing fund limits, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Chief, Forest Service, to require all organization levels to use a standardized national methodology for assessing and withholding the support costs for the K-V program that will limit the expenditures for program support to the amounts collected for such purposes. |
Closed – Implemented
As a result of GAO's recommendation, the Forest Service formed the K-V Indirect Costs and Accounting Methods Task Force. The Task Force developed a series of alternative recommendations and issued its report in November 1997. The Forest Service selected one of the alternatives that utilizes information on the Sale Area Improvement Plan--KV Plan-- and a modified version of the KV Plan Profile to estimate planned expenditures for both direct and indirect costs for use in the budget planning process. This system should allow the Forest Service to use only amounts on support costs collected on the timber sales. The Forest Service is incorporating this interim directive into its Renewable Resource Uses of K-V Handbook, FSH 2409.19.
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Topics
Federal agency accounting systemsFederal interfund transactionsForest conservationForest managementFunds managementGovernment collectionsInternal controlsNational forestsTimber salesTrust revolving funds