Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Makes Progress Toward Expanding User Fee Program

GAO examined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) efforts to develop a user fee system, which would include licensing and filing fees and annual charges collected from the oil, pipeline, electric, and natural gas companies which use FERC services.

FERC has taken actions to develop a strong user fee program. However, GAO believes that FERC could further strengthen the program by: (1) implementing procedures to periodically test the accuracy of its staff time reporting system; (2) developing written criteria as to which costs should be included or excluded in calculating the average cost for one employee, a key ingredient in the fee determination process; (3) preparing a user requirements analysis of its new accounting system; and (4) proceeding with the creation of one specific office to centralize management over all user fee program activities. In seeking to address these needs, FERC is installing an automated Time Distribution Reporting System to provide more accurate staff day information. Further, FERC is working to adopt an existing Department of Energy accounting system. Although these are significant steps, GAO believes that more can be done to strengthen the FERC user fee program.

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: James Duffus Iii Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-7756