Summary: This report presents the highlights of GAO's fiscal year 2004 Performance and Accountability report. In short, fiscal year 2004 was an exceptional year for GAO. For example, we received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements and met or exceeded all but one of our key performance measures. In addition, we exceeded or equaled our all-time record for six of our seven key performance indicators while continuing to improve our client and employee feedback survey results. We documented $44 billion in financial benefits--a return of $95 for every dollar spent, or $13.7 million per employee. We also recorded over 1,000 nonfinancial benefits that helped to shape important legislation and increase the efficiency of various federal programs, thus improving the lives of millions of Americans. In addition, the rate at which our recommendations had been implemented by the Congress or federal agencies rose to 83 percent, and we made over 2,700 new recommendations in fiscal year 2004. We just missed our timeliness goal by delivering 97 percent of our products to the Congress when promised. This summary of our performance and accountability report highlights many of our contributions in fiscal year 2004 toward improving the government. The performance data and financial information in our report and this summary are complete and reliable, as noted in GAO's statement of assurance.
