Second-Year Implementation of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act in the Department of Education

GAO reviewed the Department of Education's efforts to implement and comply with the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982 (FMFIA).

GAO found that: (1) Education's second-year implementation of the act identified some new internal control weaknesses; (2) Education's progress in evaluating accounting systems in 1984 provided a better basis for reporting; (3) there were insufficient internal controls to prevent unauthorized access and manipulation; (4) Education excluded important program areas from vulnerability assessment coverage and did not effectively focus its assessment of remaining areas on potential risk of fraud; and (5) reviews performed on many major programs have been ineffective for determining the adequacy of internal controls. GAO also found that: (1) there was little assurance that corrective actions would be taken because Education did not have a complete inventory of identified material weaknesses; (2) a methodology for assessing automated systems' internal controls has not been developed; (3) Education did not ensure effective implementation of internal control activities by its program offices; (4) six of Education's largest systems did not conform with the Comptroller General's requirements; and (5) there was no adequate basis to state whether Education's system of internal controls, taken as a whole, conformed to the act's objectives.

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: J. William Gadsby Team: General Accounting Office: Human Resources Division Phone: (202) 512-8387