Decisionmaking Process for Farm Program Policies Needs To Be Improved

GAO reviewed the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service's (ASCS) policy decision to defer the repayment of certain commodity advance deficiency payments.

ASCS revised the refund policy to: (1) correct a problem it encountered in administering farm commodity programs at county offices; and (2) provide an additional enrollment incentive for the 1984 corn program. GAO found that: (1) ASCS made the decision to revise the policy without a prior review by the Department of Agriculture (USDA); (2) there was little programmatic analysis to support the decision to revise the policy; (3) one county office sent premature demand letters to producers for refunds of 1983 advance commodity deficiency payments prior to the end of the marketing year; and (4) ASCS did not analyze the extent to which the revised collection policy was expected to increase program participation. GAO also found that: (1) the revised policy caused the government to incur additional interest costs because it did not notify producers that interest would be charged during the deferral period; and (2) organizational units within ASCS should have fully addressed and resolved the issues surrounding the deferral decision prior to deciding on a policy revision.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Brian P. Crowley Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-9450