Summary: GAO reviewed the capability of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to identify systemic problems that might adversely affect its ability to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
GAO found that ITC does not maintain an in-house audit and investigative capability. ITC signed an interagency agreement authorizing the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide payroll, accounting, and financial reporting services for ITC. However, GSA was not granted audit responsibility in this agreement. Thus, with the exception of imprest fund audits by the Department of the Treasury and GSA and a financial audit by GAO, ITC has not had a financial or operations audit within the past 16 years. An audit function had not been established within the agency or specified as one of the GSA responsibilities in the interagency agreement because: (1) ITC is a small agency, with limited resources, and does not have its own accounting system; (2) GSA would have imposed additional charges if granted audit responsibility for ITC; and (3) since GSA performed all accounting functions for ITC, it was reasoned that its transactions would be audited along with other transactions whenever GAO or GSA audited GSA functions and activities.
