Summary: This is a publication by GAO's Inspector General that concerns internal GAO operations. In accordance with Section 5 of the Government Accountability Office Act of 2008 (GAO Act), this is the semiannual report for the 6-month period ending September 30, 2010. During the reporting period, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sustained its efforts to finalize and implement the revised OIG order to reflect our statutory role and responsibilities while continuing to conduct audits and investigations. We posted the revised draft OIG order for notice and comment and are in the process of considering and responding to comments we received and to make further changes in the order, as appropriate. In addition, we conducted an internal review of our quality assurance framework and are in the process of taking steps to further strengthen our processes and controls in response to this review. We recognize that other changes may be needed as we finalize our OIG order and complete our transition to the role of a statutory OIG. As a result, we do not anticipate participating in a peer review until we have completed this transition and have conducted and fully addressed any recommendations resulting from at least two additional internal inspections.
During the reporting period, we issued one audit report that evaluated GAO's performance measure for reporting financial benefits for fiscal year 2009, focusing on the reasonableness of the amounts claimed. In addition, we supported GAO's annual internal inspection program's review of the agency's financial disclosure and independence functions, and initiated or continued work related to two other engagements, which included a review of the adequacy of GAO's controls to prevent and detect employee misuse of government travel cards and an assessment of the effectiveness of GAO's information security controls, including GAO's voluntary compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act and other federal information security requirements, as appropriate. We also responded to congressional inquiries regarding Freedom of Information Act requests, the status of OIG recommendations, and impediments, if any, to OIG's independence in carrying out its oversight activities within GAO. We provided these responses only to the requesters and do not anticipate their public release unless made public by a requester. This report contains recommendations.
