Summary: Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited voluntary agencies' expenditures of funds they received under the Department of State's Refugee Reception and Placement Program for fiscal years 1986 and 1987.
GAO found that: (1) Congress passed legislation in 1986 to improve the voluntary agencies' financial accountability through increased financial reporting requirements; (2) meaningful comparison of program costs among agencies was difficult due to their inconsistent data reporting; (3) State did not effectively monitor the accuracy, comparability, or reliability of the agencies' financial reports; (4) the cooperative agreements between State and the voluntary agencies did not require the agencies to prepare financial statements audited in accordance with generally accepted government accounting standards (GAGAS); (5) the cooperative agreements' requirement that agencies spend funds within 12 months after the fiscal year in which they received them did not prevent agencies from accumulating large unobligated balances; (6) the agencies' differing methods and assumptions for classifying direct-service and administrative costs made interpretation of reports difficult; and (7) the agencies' reports to Congress did not provide an accurate description of the proportion of federal funds they used for direct refugee assistance.
