In summary, as of August 2012, USDA had fully addressed three of our recommendations, made significant progress toward addressing two, and made some progress toward addressing one.

From fiscal years 2001 through 2007, the Civil Rights Division initiated matters and filed cases to implement its enforcement responsibilities through the four sections. The Employment Litigation Section initiated 3,212 matters and filed 60 cases as plaintiff under federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination. Most matters (3,087) were referred by other agencies. Of the 11 pattern or pr

ASCR's difficulties in resolving discrimination complaints persist--ASCR has not achieved its goal of preventing future backlogs of complaints. At a basic level, the credibility of USDA's efforts has been and continues to be undermined by ASCR's faulty reporting of data on discrimination complaints and disparities in ASCR's data. Even such basic information as the number of complaints is subject

ASCR's difficulties in resolving discrimination complaints persist--ASCR has not achieved its goal of preventing backlogs of complaints. The credibility of USDA's efforts has been and continues to be undermined by ASCR's faulty reporting and disparities in ASCR's data. Even such basic information as the backlog of complaints is subject to wide variation in ASCR's reports to the public and Congres

ASCR's difficulties in resolving discrimination complaints persist--ASCR has not achieved its goal of preventing future backlogs of complaints. At a basic level, the credibility of USDA's efforts has been and continues to be undermined by ASCR's faulty reporting of data on discrimination complaints and disparities in ASCR's data. Even such basic information as the number of complaints is subject

Our tests of the Commission's fiscal year 2003 financial transactions identified substantial deficiencies in the underlying support for a significant level of its expenditures. Specifically, while our tests of $5.3 million of payroll transactions found them to be substantially correct, our tests of $4.9 million of nonpayroll-related transactions, including travel and procurement, found serious de

GAO noted that: (1) it reviewed case selection in CRT's Housing and Civil Enforcement, Employment Litigation, and Voting sections; (2) according to officials in these sections, CRT does not have written procedures for selecting cases to pursue; (3) officials said that the predominant criterion for selecting cases to pursue is the legal merit of the case; (4) the section chiefs said various factor

GAO noted that: (1) a number of long-standing problems are impending USDA's efforts to improve delays in its processing of discrimination complaints within its Civil Rights Program, including: (a) continuing management turnover and reorganizations in USDA's OCR; (b) inadequate staff and managerial expertise; (c) a lack of clear, up-to-date guidance and procedures; and (d) poor working relationshi