Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined whether the Farm Credit Administration's (FCA) financial disclosure system safeguarded against conflicts between employees' financial interests and their federal duties.
GAO found that: (1) FCA significantly improved its financial disclosure system the Office of Government Ethics reported in January 1985 that its system was inadequate; (2) FCA appointment of an alternate designated ethics official improved the administration of the disclosure system; (3) FCA improved its procedures for identifying employees required to file public and confidential disclosure reports; (4) employees generally filed public and confidential reports on or before the required due dates, and 345 of the 354 employees designated to file 1989 confidential reports did so; (5) FCA improved the timeliness of its reviews of public and confidential disclosure reports; and (6) FCA needs to publish more specific information on circumstances that could result in conflicts of interest under ethics regulation.
