-- .- i i Y The GAO Review (ISSN 0016-3414) is published quarterly by the U.S. General Accounting Office, Washington, DC 20548. Second Y _ . Contents From Our Briefcase Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Fiscal Year 1987 U.S. Budget Documents Doing More With Less, Creatively Review of Pollution Issues Microcomputer Quality Assurance Bibliography Quantity vs. Quality in Auditing More Productive Desk Work On Location Martin Luther King III Speaks at Black History Month 6 Program JFMIP Holds 15th Annual Conference GAO’s School Partnership Program Celebrates First Anniversary Latin America, Other Offices To Close A Day at the Supreme Court: Observing the Gramm-Rudman Hearings Manager’s Corner Managing Information Technology Topics in Evaluation Reasoning From Evidence to Conctusions Carl E. Wisler An Album of GAO William C. Oelkers 18 Buildings The Career Plateau: Ellen K. Harvey and John R. Schultz 24 What Is It and What Can We Do About It? Page i The GAO Review/Summer 1986 Contents Executive Summaries: Nancy A. Patterson and Loretta K. Welch 27 Implementing a New Concept in GAO An Improved Alan D. Ash 31 Performance Reporting System at the Local Level When U.S. Citizens Die Dermis R. Devine 34 Abroad: GAO’s Role A Week’s Worth Wyley P. Neal 36 Bookmark Reviewed by Daniel J. Semick 38 Giants in Management Legislative Judith G. Hatter Developments Senior GAO Staff 42 Changes Other GAO Staff Additional Staff Changes Changes New Staff Members Attritions Retirements Professional Activities Page ii The GAO Review/Summer 1986 From Our Briefcase Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Comptroller General may be removed tiveness, and economy GAO makes as an only by congressional joint resolution for independent legislative branch agency. The Supreme Court ended its 198.58fi ses- cause or by impeachment. The Court sion by issuing a decision striking down added that the Congress itself, in drafting Fiscal Year 1987 U.S. Budget the Comptroller General’s role under the the legislation, had anticipated this prob- Documents Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit lem and had included a fallback provision Control Act of 1985. In its July 7 ruling, Anyone interested in federal financial and that eliminated GAO’s role. The Court administrative management will find a thr Court said t.hat the Comptroller Gen- recommended that the Congress use this rral was a legislative branch officer and, complete source of background data in the process to enact the $11.7 billion reduc- annual budget documents issued by the Of- as such, could not carry out executive tion in fiscal year 19% expenditures functions assigned to him under this law. fice of Management and Budget. For exam- already made on the basis of the Camp- ple, annual deficits that spurred the The Act, popularly known as Gramm- troller General’s January 21 report to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation can be Rudman-Hollings, set up a series of President. Both houses ol’ t.he Congress traced En Historical Tables, Budget of the targets under an automatic process for passed the required joint resolution United States Governmat, 1987, and cur- eliminating the federal deficit by 1991. within days ol’the (:ourt’s decision. rent management initiatives intended to The law called for the Office of Manage- It took them longer, however! to decide improve federal efficiency can be reviewed mc*nt and Budget (OMH) and the Con how to reduce the federal deficit in in Management of the United States Gov- grchssional Rudget Office (C’f%O) suhmit to future years. In the Senate, there were enzment, 1987. Descriptions of the docu- a,joint report to t.he Comptroller General several proposals for recasting the auto ments introductory pages follow. t>ac4h year tbstimating the amount by matic trigger to provide a constitutional which federal expenditures exceed the Budget of the United States Government, role for GAO; however, House leaders pre- legislative ceiling and t.he prrrentagt 1987, contains the President’s budget mes- ferred to rely on the law’s fallback prov- reduction for each budget account to sage and presents an overview of the Pres- sion. At the last minute, to pass essential achieve the desired level of spending. ident’s budget proposals. The document in- legislation raising the public debt ceiling, GAO’s rol+the central issue in the legal cludes explanations of spending programs the Senate acceded to t,he Housr~. challenge to the Act--was to reach a in terms of national needs, agency mis- Although GAO will not play a role in judgment on the estimates provided and sions, and basic programs; an analysis of determining the extent of fiscal year 1987 ((I issue a report to the President specify- receipts, including a discussion of the budget sequesters, if any, it will still issue ing required actions to reduce the deficit. President’s tax program; and a description a report assessing the joint OMH/CBO of the budget system and various summary l’hil major legal challenge to the const,itu- estimates, as requested by Representative tables on the budget as a whole. tionality of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Jack Brooks, Chairman of the House process was filed by Representative (:ommittee on Government Operations. United States Budget in BrieJ 1987, is de- ;Mic.hael Synar on behalf of himself and I1 signed for use by the general public. It pro- The Court’s Gramm-Rudman decision other members of the Congrcass. A special vides a more concise, less technical may have far-reaching impliratirrns for three-judge district court panel ruled on overview of the 1987 budget than the pre- GAO because it carries out many so- February 7 that the Gramm~RutEman vious volume and includes summary and railed executive functions. Both t,he prl~cess violated the constitutional historical tables and graphic displays on Senate Committee on Governmental separation-of-powers doctrine by con- the federal budget and debt. furring upon the Comptroller General Affairs and the House Committee on PxtBcutive functions that may not consti- Government Operations held hearings in Bwfget of the United States Government, tutlonally be given to an officer remova- late July to consider this issucx. In his tps- 1987-Appendti contains more detailed ble only by the Congress. The Supreme timony, Comptroller Gentxral Bowsher information on the various appropriations Court, in its T-2 ruling, concurred. warned legislators not. to act precipitL and funds that compose the budget. The ously, citing the myriad implications in document presents for each agency the IIow should the constitutional flaw in the modifying the carefully crafted position proposed appropriations language, budget law be corrected? The Court did not of GAO in the federal government. Lead- schedules for each account, new legislative endorse the idea of changing the removal ers of both Committees appeared LO proposals, explanations of the work to be provision in the Budget and Accounting agree, citing the valuable contributions to performed and the funds needed, and pro- Act of 1921, which provides that t.he improlring government efficiency. effect- Page 1 posed general provisions applicable to the Doing More With Less, thing falls into place and the flashing light appropriations for the entire agency or Creatively comes on. Precisely because the bulb group of agencies. The document also in- lights only after an intense period of con- cludes information on certain activities A quote from Theodore Roosevelt may be centration and frustration, its impact is whose outlays are not part of the budget relevant in these times of budget deficits enormous. After days, months, even years totals. Supplement& and rescission pro- and cuts and of doing more with less: “Do of tension over a problem, suddenly the posals for the currcmt year are presented what you can, with what you have, where answer shines like a beacon. separately. you are.” A large dose of creativity is 5. V~f~cationl~duction-Confronting needed to put these words into action. Special Analyses, Budget of the United and solving the practical problems. Other Dr. David CampbrlI’s book, Take the Road people are persuaded and enlisted. The States Govenlmt?nt, 3987, contains analy- to Creativity and Get Off Your Dead End ses designed to highlight specified program AHA! stage, satisfying as it may be, is only (available in the GAO Library or from the end of the beginning. There is hard areas or present other, significant federal Argus Communications, Allen, Texas, budget data. This document includes alter- work yet to be done, and “hard work” is 1977), discusses enhancing creativity, par- precisely the name for it. This final phase native views of the budget, i.e., current ticularly as it relates to t.he workplace. Ex- services and national income accounts; of the process requires persistence, and cerpts from two chapters of the book fol- many otherwise creative people flounder economic and financial analyses of the low. budget covering government fmances and at this point; they don’t have the persua- operations as a whole; and government- Phases of Creativity: Creative people fre- sive and organizational abilities necessary wide program and fiiancial information for quently report that in coming up with a to organize others into action. federal civil rights and research and devel- new idea or product, they went through Characteristics of Creative Managers: opment programs. several phases, usually in the following For organizations to he creative, the peo- order: Histon~cai Tables, Budget of the United ple who run them have to vaiue innovation 1. Preparation-Laying the groundwork. State Government, 1987, provides data on and have to know how to deal with inno- Learning the background of a situation. budget receipts, outlays, surpluses or vations when they come along. Following While not all experts are creative, most deficits, and the federal debt for longer are the characteristics of managers who creators are experts.