GAO reviewed the Bureau of Prisons to determine whether it had made overpayments to contractors. During fiscal year 2001, the Bureau of Prisons had 24 open construction contracts that totaled about $1.9 billion. In addition to general disbursement controls, GAO found internal controls specific to construction contracts in which both the project representative and the contracting officer must appr

GAO noted that: (1) annual construction expenditures for elementary and secondary schools across the nation grew by 39 percent from fiscal year (FY) 1990 through FY 1997 to about $25 billion after adjusting for inflation; (2) this trend, according to reports by the Department of Education and others, reflects a variety of factors, including higher enrollments, a strong economy, and an increasing

GAO noted that: (1) the total number of PLAs in use is unknown because there is no complete or comprehensive database on the use of PLAs in the public or private sectors; (2) union and industry organizations maintain data on certain PLAs that they negotiated at the national level, but there were no comparable data on ad hoc PLAs negotiated between contractors and unions at the local level; (3) fo

GAO found that: (1) contractors used individual sureties to meet only a small part of the construction contract bonding requirements in FY 1991; (2) contractors used individual sureties for 100 of the 8,124 federal construction contracts with bonding requirements awarded in 1991, with individual sureties accounting for about $388 million of the total construction contract value of $8.7 billion; (

GAO examined OSMRE case files for Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and found that: (1) the OSMRE report was inaccurate and did not include all emergency complaints it received from 1983 through 1987; (2) it could not verify about 77 percent of the OSMRE case files it sampled; (3) although OSMRE had not established criteria to judge the timeliness of its response to emergency complaints, its inspect

GAO noted that, through fiscal year 1986, the Navy awarded 13 contracts to one contractor for the design and construction of the Trident submarine. GAO found that the Navy decided to establish competition for the submarine's construction because: (1) of the potential to save money; and (2) it believes that a potential second-source competitor is capable of building a Trident submarine. Although t

GAO found that, as of June 1986: (1) the contractor and the National Park Service's (NPS) Denver Service Center shared the responsibility for construction delays; (2) the increase in contract costs was due to the short time NPS allotted for designing the project, modifications to the original contract, and unforeseen site conditions; and (3) although contract modifications extended the completion

GAO reviewed whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was responsible for the payment of a building permit fee for a FAA construction project located in Farmington, Minnesota. GAO found that: (1) a state retains jurisdiction over federal lands or property within its territory until Congress enacts legislation specifically dealing with the property; (2) whether a state building code is ap

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided its view on S. 1181. The bill would require federal executive agencies, when they elect to make progress payments under a construction contract, to make such progress payments in full to the contractor without retention of any portion of the payment due unless the contracting officer finds and determines that the contractor is not making timely