High-Risk Series

In 1990, GAO began a special effort to identify federal programs at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. GAO issued a series of reports in December 1992 on the fundamental causes of the problems in the high-risk areas; it followed up on the status of these areas in February 1995. This, GAO's third series of high-risk reports, revisits these troubled government programs and designates five additional areas as high-risk (defense infrastructure, information security, the year 2000 problem, supplemental security income, and the 2000 decennial census), bringing to 25 the number of high-risk programs on GAO's list. The high-risk series includes an overview, a quick reference guide, and 12 individual reports. The high-risk series may be ordered as a full set, a two-volume package including the overview and the quick reference guide, or as 12 separate reports describing in detail these vulnerable government programs. GAO summarized the high-risk series in testimony before Congress (GAO/T-HR-97-22).

GAO found that: (1) DOD's financial management systems, practices, and procedures continue to be hampered by significant weaknesses; (2) DOD does not yet have adequate financial management processes in place to produce the information it needs to ensure adequate accountability and to support its decision-making process; (3) no military service or other major DOD component has been able to withstand the scrutiny of an independent financial statement audit; (4) DOD has acknowledged that it is struggling to overcome decades-old financial management problems; (5) since 1990, GAO and the DOD auditors have made over 400 recommendations aimed at correcting the Department's most pressing financial management weaknesses; (6) the past few years have been marked by DOD's financial management leadership, under the direction of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), recognizing the importance of tackling the broad range of problems in this area; (7) DOD's "blueprint" for reforming financial management represents an important first step towards resolving DOD's long-standing problems; (8) through his 5-Year Plan, the CFO has also put in place a vision statement to guide the Department's reform efforts; (9) as a result, the importance of greater financial accountability is now clearer throughout the Department; (10) to support its blueprint and CFO vision, the Department has begun a number of initiatives intended to address its long-standing financial management weaknesses; (11) DOD still has a long way to go to meet the challenges of managing its vast and complex operations with greater accountability and efficiency demanded by the Congress and the American public; (12) signs of DOD top leadership emphasis on and commitment to resolving DOD's financial management problems are encouraging; and (13) however, DOD must effectively address challenges in the six critical areas highlighted in audit reports--systems, cost accounting, disbursements, personnel, internal controls, and business processes--if its envisioned financial management reforms are to realize meaningful financial management improvements.