Summary: This report presents the highlights of GAO's fiscal year 2003 Performance and Accountability report. The Comptroller General is confident that the performance data and financial information in this report are complete and reliable. GAO met or exceeded all but one of its seven key performance measures, and it received a clean opinion from independent auditors on its financial statements. GAO helped the Congress and government leaders achieve a total of $35.4 billion in financial benefits--a $78 return on every dollar that was spent. Its work addressed many of the difficult issues that confront the nation, including diverse and diffuse security threats, changing demographic trends, increasing interdependency, rapidly evolving science and technology changes, a variety of quality-of-life issues, as well as government transformation challenges, and increasing federal budgetary constraints. It is important for the nation and its citizens not only that these issues are made visible, but also that the nation's leaders attend to them. In addition to having an impact on important national issues, GAO has taken major steps internally to be a model federal agency and world-class professional services organization.
