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entitled 'Semiannual Report: April 1, 2009 — September 30, 2009' 
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Office of the Inspector General: 
United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO/OIG: 

Semiannual Report: 

April 1, 2009 — September 30, 2009: 

OIG-10-2: 

Office of the Inspector General: 
United States Government Accountability Office: 

Memorandum: 

Date: December 7, 2009: 

To: Acting Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro: 

From: [Signed by] Inspector General Frances Garcia: 

Subject: Semiannual Report—April 1, 2009, through September 30, 2009: 

In accordance with Section 5 of the Government Accountability Office 
Act of 2008 (GAO Act), I am submitting my semiannual report for the 
second half of fiscal year 2009 for your comments and its transmission 
to the Congress. During this period, the Office of the Inspector 
General (OIG) continued to undertake a number of actions to implement 
requirements in the GAO Act and selected provisions in the Inspector 
General Reform Act of 2008. These actions included drafting a revised 
GAO order and policies and procedures, to incorporate our statutory 
role and responsibilities; making changes to GAO’s intranet to improve
visibility of the OIG and its hotline to employees and contractors; 
and participating in the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity 
and Efficiency. 

In addition, we issued one report with recommendations (GAO/OIG-09-3): 
our evaluation of four of GAO’s people performance measures—staff 
development, staff utilization, leadership, and organizational 
climate. (See attachment for a summary of this report and GAO actions 
to address the report’s recommendations.) Further, we initiated a 
review of the agency’s timeliness measure, and based on methodological
and other issues raised during our review, GAO has agreed that the 
issues are worthy of further examination and will be fully analyzed. 
As a result, we will monitor the changes made and reassess the measure 
when those changes are completed. We also completed an audit risk 
assessment of GAO to aid in our development of risk-based audit work 
plans. Our ongoing work includes two reviews of GAO performance 
measures (financial benefits and testimonies) and a review of the 
agency’s information systems security program in voluntary compliance 
with the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management 
Act of 2002 (FISMA). 

Regarding our efforts to identify potential fraud, waste, and abuse 
within GAO, we completed action on 6 open complaints from the prior 
semiannual report and received 42 inquiries and allegations this 
reporting period through our hotline and other sources. Because 28 of 
these 48 cases concerned matters related to other federal agencies, we 
closed them with a referral to GAO’s FraudNet—a governmentwide hotline 
that receives complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse of federal funds—
or, in one case, to the appropriate agency OIG. We closed an 
additional 12, which included potential misrepresentation of GAO or 
its officials and inquiries for information, because there was no 
basis for further action. We investigated and closed 6 other cases 
that involved complaints concerning GAO reports, employee misconduct, 
the abuse of and fraudulent charges on government travel cards, and 
misuse of GAO credentials by a former contractor employee. Because of 
our investigations, GAO suspended an employee for misconduct and has
restricted the types of merchants or businesses where its travel cards 
can be used and thereby reduced the risk of fraud and abuse. In 
addition, GAO ensured the credentials of the former contractor 
employee were retrieved and destroyed. Lastly, at the end of the 
reporting period, two cases submitted during this reporting period
remained open. 

In response to recommendations made in prior OIG reports, GAO has 
taken the following actions: 

* Based on Diversity at GAO: Sustained Attention Needed to Build on 
Gains in SES and Managers (GAO-08-1098; Sept. 10, 2008), GAO is in the 
process of revising an order to establish a requirement for an annual 
Workforce Diversity Plan [Footnote 1] and to clarify responsibilities 
and procedures when a complaint involves staff within GAO’s Office of 
Opportunity and Inclusiveness. GAO has obtained comments on the draft 
order and expects to issue the order by the end of 2009. 

* Based on Independent Evaluation of GAO’s Information Security Program
and Practices—Fiscal Year 2008 (GAO/OIG-09-1, Oct. 2, 2008), GAO
expanded its inventory of information systems to be consistent with 
FISMA requirements, began incorporating specific security language in 
information technology acquisitions, revised its annual awareness 
training to highlight GAO’s information security policies and 
procedures, and created tools and continued negotiations to help 
ensure that service providers give GAO periodic updates on their 
security weaknesses. In addition, for its privacy program, GAO drafted 
a new order and made revisions to 4 C.F.R. part 83, Privacy Procedures 
for Personnel Records of the Government Accountability Office, to 
establish policies and procedures for protecting the privacy of 
personally identifiable information, created and implemented a Privacy 
Impact Assessment process, and reported completing these privacy impact
assessments for 23 agency information systems. 

Attachment: 

cc: Sallyanne Harper, Chief Administrative Officer: 
Lynn Gibson, Acting General Counsel: 
Sheldon Cohen, Chair, Audit Advisory Committee: 
Judith O’Dell, member, Audit Advisory Committee: 
Edward Mazur, member, Audit Advisory Committee: 

[End of section] 

Attachment: Summary of OIG Reports and GAO Actions: 

Reports Issued April 1, 2009, through September 30, 2009: 

Four People Performance Measures: Many Attributes of Successful 
Measures Met; Opportunities Exist for Further Enhancements (GAO/OIG-09-
3, Aug. 31, 2009): 

Findings: In this report, the OIG concluded that, in fiscal year 2007, 
GAO accurately calculated the four performance measures reviewed—staff 
development, staff utilization, leadership, and organizational 
climate. Further, of the nine attributes of successful performance 
measures identified by previous GAO work, staff utilization and 
organizational climate met all of the attributes, and staff 
development and leadership met many of the attributes. The OIG also 
found that GAO could improve disclosure in and understanding about the 
measures in its annual performance report. The four measures’ scores 
are derived from GAO’s Employee Feedback Survey. 

Recommendations and GAO Actions: The report included four 
recommendations to improve the measures. GAO management took action in 
response to each of the recommendations. In its fiscal year 2009 
performance report, GAO has made a number of additional disclosures 
about these performance measures. First, GAO has disclosed that the 
scores for the four measures are calculated by excluding survey
respondents who select “no basis/not applicable” and that, for two 
measures, including these respondents would result in a different 
percentage (or score). Second, GAO clarified that its leadership 
measure focuses on supervisory leadership by changing its name to 
“effective leadership by supervisors.” Third, GAO is replacing one of 
this measure’s survey questions on how effectively supervisors dealt 
with equal employment opportunity and discrimination issues because of 
the large number of respondents who answer “no basis/not applicable” 
to this question. Further, GAO drafted written procedures to ensure 
changes made to measures and any effects on performance data 
comparability are promptly reported. 

[End of section] 

Footnote: 

[1] On June 30, 2009, GAO published its second Workforce Diversity 
Plan. 

[End of section] 

Reporting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in GAO’s Internal Operations: 

To report fraud, waste, and abuse in GAO’s internal operations, do
one of the following. (You may do so anonymously.) 

* Call toll-free (866) 680-7963 to speak with a hotline specialist,
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

* Send an e-mail to OIGHotline@gao.gov. 

* Send a fax to the OIG Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline at (202) 
512-8361. 

* Write to: 
GAO Office of Inspector General: 
441 G Street NW, Room 1808: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

Obtaining Copies of GAO/OIG Reports and Testimony: 

To obtain copies of OIG reports and testimony, go to GAO’s Web
site: www.gao.gov/about/workforce/ig.html. 

Congressional Relations: 

Ralph Dawn, Managing Director, dawnr@gao.gov, (202) 512-4400: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street NW, Room 7125: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

Public Affairs: 

Chuck Young, Managing Director, youngc1@gao.gov, (202) 512-4800: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street NW, Room 7149: 
Washington, DC 20548: