Summary: In response to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contracting delays for reportable construction projects, focusing on the impoundment implications under the Impoundment Control Act.
GAO found that: (1) the contracting delays for 22 projects did not constitute an impoundment of budget authority; (2) VA did not intentionally refrain from using the funds, since programmatic considerations, such as changes in project scope or design and receipt of bids exceeding the available funds, caused the delays; (3) VA awarded or expected to award contracts for 18 of the 22 projects by September 1989; (4) VA did not report two projects for which it had not awarded primary construction contracts because it believed that one project's additional funding requirement obviated the reporting requirement and its award of a contract for site preparation satisfied the act's requirement for the other project; and (5) the delays in those two projects did not constitute impoundments of budget authority.
