From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Comptroller General Testifies to U.S. House on GAO's
2021 High Risk List Update

Description: In his March 2, 2021, testimony to the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform, Comptroller General
Gene Dodaro provides an update of GAO's 2021 High Risk List, including
two new areas added since 2020: Emergency Loans for Small Businesses,
and National Efforts to Prevent, Respond to, and Recover from Drug
Misuse.

Related GAO Work: GAO-21-383T, High-Risk Series: Dedicated Leadership
Needed to Address Limited Progress in Most High-Risk Areas

Released: March 2021 

[Comptroller General Gene Dodaro:] There have been some bright spots of
improvement since 2019 when we last updated the list, but overall,
there's been limited progress. In 20 of the high-risk areas, the ratings
substantially are not changed from they were in 2019, and in 5 areas,
they've actually regressed. Senator Portman referenced one. There are
others, and I'm not satisfied with the progress that's been achieved,
and I don't believe that Congress should be either. I think there's a
lot of room for improvement here. Now on the positive side, the seven
areas did improve, one to the point of removal from the list. That's the
DoD support infrastructure. So they actually reduced office space,
warehouse space. They were able to get rid of some properties, Senator
Portman. They were, you know, big part of the government's efforts that
we're able to receive progress in that area, and they reduced their
leasing costs, and they've struck deals with local governments now to
provide support services that have reduced their cost, so -- and we felt
they were in good shape. They've also promised to implement all our
recommendations if Congress ever authorizes another base closure round,
so I was very pleased with that. And DoD, in particular, has made some
very good progress over the past couple years. Now, we are adding to
areas. Senator Portman, you referenced the one which is on federal
efforts to prevent, respond to, and recover from drug misuse. From 2002
to 2019, 800,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose, and the
May '19 to May '20 period has the highest recorded annual increase
according to preliminary data from CDC of 80,000 people on an annual
basis. We need greater national leadership, coordination, not only among
federal agencies, but with state and local partners, and partners in the
private sector, in the healthcare industry, and in the law enforcement
community as well. This is a multifaceted issue. We've got 67 open
recommendations yet that need to be fulfilled. In the other area we've
added is the emergency loan programs created for SBA, the Paycheck
Protection Program, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Programs. Now,
these programs have been very important components of helping small
businesses, so I don't want take anything away from the positive impact
that they've had, but they are far short of transparency and
accountability goals. We made recommendations back in June, a few months
after they had gotten started recognizing they needed to get the money
out, but they needed to have oversight plans to protect program
integrity, to protect against fraud. There have been fraud in the
programs. Their financial auditors could not give an opinion on SBA's
financial statements this past year because they couldn't support
documentation for loan balances and the fact that they had flagged a lot
of ineligible potential recipients and not had good controls in place
both at their level or with the financial intermediaries that they hired
to provide the loan. So this area needs continued -- a lot of attention
in order to take care of it. Now, there are several existing high-risk
areas that I think are worthy of additional focus by the Congress. First
is cybersecurity to protect our nation, both among federal agencies as
well as critical infrastructure protection. Now, I first designated this
as a high-risk area across the entire federal government in 1997, so
I've been trying to get Congress's attention, the agency's attention on
this area. Unfortunately, the government is still not operating at a
pace commensurate with the evolving and serious threats that are
continuing to emerge. So we have many recommendations in that area, and
I'm happy to elaborate on those further. I'm also concerned about the
state of the federal workforce. Twenty-two of the high-risk areas are on
the list because of skill gaps, and critical shortages of both numbers
and people, and the type of skills that they need, and I don't think the
federal government's workforce is well postured to meet 21st century
challenges, so that's in need of attention as well. Limiting the federal
government's exposure by better managing climate risk is another area
that needs considerable attention. Focusing in on the government's
growing environmental liabilities is another. Senator Portman referenced
the postal service travails on financial issues, and their business
model needs attention, and these are among the areas. Importantly, I
want to emphasize that 12 of -- only 12 of the areas -- 36 on the list
-- have demonstrated the leadership needed that we look for to begin the
process of coming off the list. So the areas that we have taken off the
list in the past have all had essential ingredients. Top agency
leadership support, support from OMB, which has been lacking recently,
and also support from the Congress and leadership. When those three
ingredients are present, that is the prescription for success here in
dealing successfully with these high-risk areas and achieving what we
all want is to get them off the list, to save billions of dollars,
provide better services to the public, and public safety, and other
matters, and to help build confidence in our government. So thank you
very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm happy to answer questions.