NCJ Number
74572
Date Published
1980
Length
115 pages
Annotation
This report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) discusses the causes, techniques, and effects of yearend spending by Federal civilian departments and agencies and provides a detailed review of the problems encountered by 4 Federal agencies and an analysis of obligation data of 16 major civilian agencies for fiscal years 1978 and 1979.
Abstract
Major civilian agencies spent about $366 billion in fiscal year 1979, with 21 percent of the amount spent in the last 2 months of the fiscal year. Agencies followed various techniques and procurement processing shortcuts to spend quickly excess funds at yearend, including noncompetitive or sole-source contract awards, contract modifications, and incremental funding of existing contracts beyond current period needs. The review disclosed (1) noncompliance with laws and regulations, including recording obligations lacking legal sufficiency; (2) obligating expired appropriations; and (3) possible procurements exceeding current bonafide needs. GAO recommends that the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, the Interior, and Education, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency direct their budgeting, programming, and procurement offices to develop or improve an advance procurement planning system tied in with the budgetary and apportionment system, a system for monitoring the procurement planning system, and a system to check that all required documentation is prepared and all required procurement procedures are followed. Agency comments, tables, footnotes, and a list of abbreviations are included. Related data and letters are appended. (Author summary modified)