Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to implement GAO's recommendations addressing FDA's property control weaknesses.
GAO noted that: (1) overall, FDA has made good progress in addressing the recommendations made in GAO's report; (2) GAO's follow-up found that FDA was performing interim reconciliations of property transactions recorded in the general and subsidiary ledgers, and has begun training agency personnel in proper surplussing procedures for property and equipment; (3) in addition, FDA had written procedures for completing a fiscal year 1999 comprehensive inventory of property and equipment agencywide, which was underway during this review; and (4) however, FDA had not yet developed written procedures for conducting component-specific spot audits to ensure compliance with procedures related to property management, nor had FDA finalized and implemented procedures for the processing and reporting of lost, stolen, and damaged property and equipment.
