Summary: The GAO budget request for fiscal year (FY) 1979 is $187.843 million, an increase of $11.863 million over the 1978 appropriation. This will support 5,264 average positions in 1979, an increase of 120 over the 5,144 authorized for FY 1978. About $4.3 million of the increase is attributable to a request for an additional 120 average positions. The GAO budget request has three basic objectives: (1) to be able to respond to specific congressional requests for assistance; (2) to maintain a minimum level of audit and program evaluation activity for all programs for which GAO has audit responsibility under its basic statutes; and (3) to carry out other day-to-day responsibilities under GAO basic statutes. Fulfillment of these three objectives will require the use of an additional 120 staff-years in 1979 over FY 1978 levels. Twenty additional staff-years are needed to fulfill requirements of legislation specifically mandating GAO to do audit and evaluation work within a specified timeframe and respond to committee and member requests for audits and evaluations. Forty-nine staff-years are estimated to be needed in 1979 to meet responsibilities under GAO basic coverage for new and expanded programs. Another 79 staff-years are estimated to be required to backfill staff-years that will have to be reprogrammed from regular audit coverage to meet responsibilities mandated by recent legislation.
