Summary: The General Accounting Office (GAO) has become increasingly involved in the review and audit of evaluative and social experimental efforts. The primary concern of GAO in this area has been to recognize the utility and effectiveness of the experimental methods employed while simultaneously assuring Congress that it will fulfill its role to investigate all matters relating to the receipt, disbursement, and application of public funds. While carrying out its responsibilities to Congress, GAO must, at the same time, minimize any problems created by audits of social experiments. GAO has identified 14 issues pertaining to the movement of the methods of social research into the policy process. GAO believes it should have access to all aspects of a contracted experimental program. The benefits of a more constructive public involvement in public policymaking is probably worth the cost of answering the resulting technical questions and issues. Answers to these questions need to be carefully considered by all those organizations and citizens who have an interest in building public accountability into the social experimentation process.
