Word: gao
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...committee's assessment of him accurate: he does have contempt for Congress. The secretary, who last December used some $9000 of government funds to hold parties in mansion owned by the government, has made it abundantly clear that he does not care at all if the General Accounting Office (GAO) finds he misused the funds. Dismissing the suggestion that he reimburse the government, Watt says tersely it is the GAO that "is in error." Indeed, the Secretary does not even deign to appear at the Congressional hearing into the matter, sending instead an aide who simply reiterates that his boss...
Last week's GAO study, however, makes plain that the current American law is riddled with complicating ambiguities and shortcomings. Many of the problems arise from confusion over what constitutes a bribe. So-called grease payments, such as fees to get low-level civil servants to perform their bureaucratic duties of stamping documents and processing licenses, are specifically permitted on the grounds that petty corruption is unavoidable almost anywhere. But there is a large gray area between that sort of bureaucratic paper shuffling and the discretionary authority of local officials to withhold approval for a project or license...
...foreign agents. If the local representative uses even a part of his commission, as often happens, to bribe officials to keep a deal on track, the act asserts that the U.S. company is responsible if the executives had reason to know what the agent was doing. The GAO study recommends that Congress rewrite the law to give clearer guidance to businessmen as to what they can and cannot do to curry favor with foreign customers. It suggests that Congress repeal the criminal penalties connected with the accounting provisions of the law and that the Department of Justice and the Securities...
During last week's hearings, Senators and Congressmen dueled with Langhorne Bond, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, who defended his use of consultants. Bond had been criticized by the GAO for not considering other firms before giving a $200,000 contract to the firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. to study possible management changes at the agency. Bond pointed out, accurately, that he had not violated any policy or law, and then blasted the GAO itself as a "menace." Said Bond: "They want to create a world in which there is a perfect audit trail for every Government...
...establishing such controls made sense to the committee. The hearings and the GAO report showed all too clearly that the Government's jerry-built system of hiring consultants badly needs reform. Now that it is budget-cutting season in Washington, Pryor believes the moment is ideal to deflate that 800-lb. marshmallow. Says he: "We could take back maybe $1 billion or $2 billion and not cut out any services at all." In fact, the hearings revealed that the Office of Management and Budget has already decided that all agencies will be required to slash funding for consultant contracts...