The State of GAO
The Government Accountability Office plays a key role as Congress's investigative arm. When the GAO speaks, people listen, or they should anyhow. Though its reports are careful to the point of being bland sometimes, the GAO teams dig deep and work hard to expose fraud, waste and abuse. They know their stuff -- or they learn quickly -- and that's good for taxpayers.
The GAO just released a "performance and accountability report" about itself. Only parts of its are about procurement and contracting. But the whole 204-page thing illuminates a way of thinking about government that is, or ought to be, shared by thoughtful taxpayers, lawmakers, government employees and contractors.
"We help the Congress oversee federal programs and operations to ensure accountability to the American people," the report says. "GAO's analysts, auditors, lawyers, economists, information technology specialists, investigators, and other multidisciplinary professionals seek to enhance the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and credibility of the federal government both in fact and in the eyes of the American people."
Those anxious about taking on the entire tome should take heart: It's searchable.
By the way, Government Computer News last month had a fascinating column by Neal Fox, a former assistant commissioner at the GSA who is now a consultant. Fox provides government and industry officials with advice about GSA and DoD procurement issues.
I include his piece here because he takes aim at the circumstances surrounding Sun Microsystems' decision to end its contract to sell through the GSA's schedule program.
Though dated, it represents a clear point of view. The piece is filled with ire about Sun's plight -- and about the role that GSA's inspector general's office and Congress played in examining questions about Sun pricing.
Sun left the GSA program amid allegations it had overcharged taxpayers by millions. Sen. Charles Grassley -- a great advocate and defender of inspectors general and taxpayers -- recently blasted the GSA and Sun in a floor speech. He said his staff investigators found many details of abuse. "They indicate top level GSA management interfered in contract negotiations with Sun Microsystems.... All the evidence suggests that this particular contractor had been overcharging the government for years."
In his column, Fox turns the debate on its head. He argues that the agency inspector general's scrutiny was wrongheaded and actually hurt "good government."
"Chalk up another setback for good government at the hands of overzealous inspectors general, as their attempt to usurp authority from the legitimate leadership in federal agencies continues unabated," Fox wrote. "Will the government's equivalent of the gang that couldn't shoot straight never learn? If not, who will stop them?"
"There are lessons in this for federal agencies and chief information officers," he writes. "First, do not cede authority to the IGs. They are advisory staff, so they can only advise those who have real authority."
Please feel free to offer thoughts about this one.
By Robert O'Harrow |
November 15, 2007; 3:43 PM ET
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Posted by: charles | November 19, 2007 9:56 AM
GAO generally does a good job and is largely free from agendas. My Agency has been investigated by GAO and did a good job of identifying most, but not all, issues that were of a systemic nature.
My dealings with GSA were mostly limited to using them to locate office space. I was not happy with the job they did so turned to the Corps of Engineers. The COE did a very good job on my behalf.
Posted by: Devon | November 28, 2007 12:51 PM
GAO may not be the best but it seems to be all we have. The truth isn noone can keep up with the way this administration quickly devises new methods to give more money to the big money holders of this country. We are already nearly a debtor nation and soon be worse than many third world countries
Posted by: Keith Hardin | December 1, 2007 12:22 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
i cant believe charles blasted sun and gsa for over charging millions of dollars for those conracts they got.why doesnt charles look at himself and his lowlife republicn party along with bush and cheney and be mad as hell about stealing the american peoples 5.8 trillion surplus and gave the rich over 3 trillion in tax cuts that could become permanent pretty soon.then on top of that,then spent over 5 trillion on the pentagon and supplementals over the past 6yrs.then ruined social security trust funds,medicare/medicaid trust funds and pension trust funds and caused over 9 trillion debt load for the country.so you tally all the deficits and the republicans have put usa in over 50 trillion in debt.i think sen charles should be wanting to do something about that then be whining over sun and gsa