The Results Act:
Observations on the Railroad Retirement Board's September 1997 Strategic Plan
HEHS-98-13R: Published: Nov 6, 1997. Publicly Released: Nov 6, 1997.
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Railroad Retirement Board's (RRB) September 1997 strategic plan, focusing on: (1) RRB's compliance with the Results Act's requirements and the plan's overall quality; (2) whether the plan reflects RRB's key statutory responsibilities; (3) whether the plan identifies crosscutting functions and plans for coordination with other departments and agencies; and (4) whether the plan addresses major RRB management challenges and its capacity to provide reliable information about its performance.
GAO noted that: (1) RRB has formally issued a plan that describes its programs, contains all six elements required by the Results Act, and reflects the agency's key statutory responsibilities; (2) this plan is clearer and more specific than the draft in several key areas; (3) RRB has included in the plan a matrix of external factors and their potential effect, added a table of its planned program evaluation activities and an implementation schedule, and discussed its relationship with other agencies and noted that it had provided its plan to a number of agencies for comment; (4) RRB's objectives in its formally issued plan continue to be unclear, making it difficult to determine how RRB will assess whether they are being achieved; (5) independent auditors have identified serious problems with RRB's financial management systems, pointing to material weaknesses in the agency's internal controls and issuing a disclaimer of opinion on RRB's financial statements since 1993; (6) by discussing the agency's financial management problems, RRB has significantly improved its formally issued plan. thus making it more realistic than the draft; (7) the plan still does not fully disclose serious and fundamental problems identified in recent audits, such as inadequate controls over benefit payments and the lack of auditable financial statements; and (8) resolving these problems will be critical to the agency's achieving its goals.
Jan 19, 2021
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Federal Rulemaking:
Selected EPA and HHS Regulatory Analyses Met Several Best Practices, but CMS Should Take Steps to Strengthen Its AnalysesGAO-21-151: Published: Dec 17, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2021.
Jan 13, 2021
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Department of Energy Contracting:
Improvements Needed to Ensure DOE Assesses Its Full Range of Contracting Fraud RisksGAO-21-44: Published: Jan 13, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 13, 2021.
Dec 16, 2020
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Data Governance:
Agencies Made Progress in Establishing Governance, but Need to Address Key MilestonesGAO-21-152: Published: Dec 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 16, 2020.
Dec 9, 2020
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2020 Census:
The Bureau Concluded Field Work but Uncertainty about Data Quality, Accuracy, and Protection RemainsGAO-21-206R: Published: Dec 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 9, 2020.
Dec 3, 2020
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2020 Census:
Census Bureau Needs to Assess Data Quality Concerns Stemming from Recent Design ChangesGAO-21-142: Published: Dec 3, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 3, 2020. -
2020 Census:
Census Bureau Needs to Ensure Transparency over Data QualityGAO-21-262T: Published: Dec 3, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 3, 2020.
Nov 30, 2020
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Federal Buying Power:
OMB Can Further Advance Category Management Initiative by Focusing on Requirements, Data, and TrainingGAO-21-40: Published: Nov 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 30, 2020.
Nov 24, 2020
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Disaster Response:
Agencies Should Assess Contracting Workforce Needs and Purchase Card Fraud RiskGAO-21-42: Published: Nov 24, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 24, 2020.
Nov 23, 2020
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Federal Contracting:
Actions Needed to Improve Department of Labor's Enforcement of Service Worker Wage ProtectionsGAO-21-11: Published: Oct 29, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 23, 2020.
Nov 18, 2020
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Federal Telework:
Key Practices That Can Help Ensure the Success of Telework ProgramsGAO-21-238T: Published: Nov 18, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2020.
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