The recent firings by P45 of four inspectors general in little over a month is unprecedented, demonstrating a determination to create unaccountable executive authority advocated by the radical right through elimination of oversight. Fortunately, this country has created a fail-safe option: GAO–the Government Accountability Office. Why is this fail-safe? Because it is mandated by Congress to have full reign to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse across government programs, a brief the president cannot control.
GAO’s mandate is much broader than those of agency inspectors general restricted to investigating their individual agency. GAO’s mission is stated in but 32 words: GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
Nicknamed the congressional watchdog, GAO’s reputation is considered scrupulously fair and nonpolitical; it audits, evaluates, and investigates government programs to ensure that they are operating as intended and as efficiently as possible. Headquartered in Washington, DC, GAO maintains 11 field offices across the country.
The Comptroller General serves a 15-year nonrenewable term and cannot be removed by the President.
GAO was called the General Accounting Office from its founding 1921; the name was changed to Government Accountability Office in 2004, when its leader, the Comptroller General of the United States, with a keen eye toward marketing, wanted its name to better reflect its mission: ensuring government accountability. The Comptroller General is selected by the president from three names (usually GAO insiders or prominent inspectors general) submitted by the Congress to serve a 15-year nonrenewable term. He or she cannot be removed by the President, only through impeachment by the Congress. This term of tenure is deliberate to shield GAO from political influence. Since 1921 there have been eight comptrollers general and no impeachment proceedings have ever been brought. The present comptroller general is Gene Dodaro, whose GAO career spans more than 45 years and whose term expires in 2025. Dodaro served as Acting Comptroller General from 2008-2010.
GAO has 15 mission teams; they are: Applied Research and Methods; Contracting and National Security Acquisitions; Defense Capabilities and Management; Education, Workforce, and Income Security; Financial Management and Assurance; Financial Markets and Community Investment; Forensic Audits and Investigative Service; Health Care; Homeland Security and Justice; Information Technology and Cybersecurity; International Affairs and Trade; Natural Resources and Environment; Physical Infrastructure; Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics; and Strategic Issues. By definition, the GAO’s scope and span of accountability encompass the entirety of federal activities.
Especially during a time when agency inspectors general are being removed for what many see as arbitrary political reasons, GAO’s function in providing reliable information to Congress and the American people increases in importance. Some of GAO’s most recent studies include information on COVID-19 vaccine development (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-583SP), college surveys on sexual violence (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-351), infection control deficiencies in nursing homes (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-576R), DHS oversight of cybersecurity at high-risk chemical facilities (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-453), and an update on the Census Bureau’s outreach activities (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-496).
GAO’s findings are thoroughly vetted internally to ensure factual accuracy and the absence of any political slant.
Most of GAO’s work (reports, congressional testimony, etc.) is performed at the request of Congress; its findings are thoroughly vetted internally to ensure factual accuracy and the absence of political slant. In performing its work, analysts must ensure that they adhere to generally accepted government auditing standards. The agency, part of the legislative branch, issues some 900 reports annually, with a staff of just over 3,000. It is not unusual that legislation passed by the Congress mandates periodic reporting by GAO on specific matters, sometimes as frequently as every 3-4 months. For example, the Congress has requested progress reports on this year’s census; thus far, reports have been issued in October 2019 and February 2020. This kind of oversight enables GAO to offer real-time updates and suggestions on how the process is working and can be improved.
GAO’s principal standard of accomplishment, internally and externally, is the amount of measurable benefits its recommendations save the government each year, compared with its annual budget. For FY 2019, its budget of some $637 million has yielded almost $215 billion in savings–a return of $338 on each dollar spent.
GAO officials’ testimony before Congress in recent months has included missile defense, the nation’s fiscal health, national biodefense strategy, telecommunications, airline consumer protection, and military housing.
GAO officials’ testimony before Congress in recent months has included missile defense, the nation’s fiscal health, national biodefense strategy, telecommunications, airline consumer protection, and military housing.
GAO’s 2020 annual report, just issued May 19, 2020, was titled Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Billions in Financial Benefits. It identified 168 new actions for Congress or executive branch agencies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government in 29 new mission areas and 10 existing areas, including the Department of Defense, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Education, and the Internal Revenue Service, among others.
GAO is consistently regarded among the more attractive government agencies at which to work. During Watergate, the Congress also looked to GAO for information. A headline from The New York Times of May 22, 1974, read, G.A.O. Says Nixon Spent $382,474 in Legal Defense.
P45 has shown no appetite for criticizing GAO or any of its findings. Indeed, the fail-safe option for guaranteeing government accountability is one Washington institution seen by all as a long-time, truly nonpartisan truth-teller.
As you probably know, I have a good deal of respect for the Government Accountability Office, known as the congressional watchdog. I spent about half of my 32-year federal career at GAO rising from a grade 7 auditor to a grade 15 assistant director in one division. The remainder of my career was as an assistant inspector general in two agencies. Despite that respect, GAO’s legislated authority may not be sufficient to gather the necessary records to review uses of $500 billion in pay protection loans by the Department of the Treasury without protracted court fights that could wind their way to the Supreme Court should the Trump Administration last that long.
This program is so large and the potential bounty so great that any theft or fraud could be almost impossible to stop or prosecute. GAO’s independence notwithstanding cannot get to records that a defiant and corruptly intended administration might choose to withhold.
We have never faced such a determined autocracy in our nation’s history. Every tradition, safeguard, check and balance, and authority has been tested to the point of breaking…and several have broken. It remains to be seen if GAO will be any different than the IGs who attempted oversight. —Rex Simmons
Thanks, Rex. Yes, we are certainly in an era of extreme administration stonewalling. If a member of Congress asked GAO to look into this, Trump would likely refuse, setting up a court battle. Just 4+ months till the election.
Most folks are already aware of the warfare between Congress and the White House. Congress in pursuit of its duty may yet take up the putative challenge for the Treasury data. The public will conclude: What is being hidden? It’s a lose-lose for the administration.