Summary: A GAO review of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found it to be an agency in disarray with limited awareness of how its resources are being used. The Commission could not provide key cost information for specific aspects of its operations, and significant records were lost, misplaced, or nonexistent. The lack of basic, well-established management controls puts the Commission at risk for waste and abuse. Projects are a key part of the Commission's operations, yet the management of projects is haphazard or nonexistent. No overall standard exists for assessing the timeliness of projects or the expectations of how long projects should take. Moreover, the lack of project documentation, systematic monitoring to detect delays and review priorities, and coordination among offices that disseminate reports seriously hampers the Commission's ability to publish timely reports. GAO found that the Commission issues project reports to the public through three different offices, none of which appears to coordinate with the others to prevent duplication. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: U.S. Commission on Civil rights: Agency Lacks Basic Management Controls, by Cornelia M. Blanchette, Associate Director for Education and Employment Issues, before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, House Committee on the Judiciary, GAO/T-HEHS-97-177, July 17 (11 pages).
