Department of Health and Human Services
Amounts Charged to the Department for Events Attended by the President Gao ID: GAO-03-791R June 9, 2003GAO, answering a request from the House Committee on Ways and Means, compiled information concerning amounts charged by the White House for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) events attended by President George W. Bush and charged to any department within HHS.
GAO determined that the White House entered into agreements to charge HHS for 15 events from January 2001 to January 2003. In total, the White House charged $252,000 dollars for 8 of the 15 events. For those events, several offices within HHS were charged, including the Administration for Children and Families, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, and the Office of Public Health and Science. GAO also found that at least 9 of the events appeared to be campaign related.
RecommendationsOur 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: Team: Phone:GAO-03-791R, Department of Health and Human Services: Amounts Charged to the Department for Events Attended by the President
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June 9, 2003:
The Honorable Charles B. Rangel:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Ways and Means:
House of Representatives:
Subject: Department of Health and Human Services: Amounts Charged to
the Department for Events Attended by the President:
Dear Mr. Rangel:
You requested information concerning amounts charged to the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) by the White House for events
attended by President George W. Bush. Specifically, you asked that we
provide the following information:
* total number of events attended by the President and charged to any
department within HHS;
* total amount charged for the events;
* specific offices within HHS that were billed for the events;
* relevant subject matter of each event; and:
* number of events that coincided with campaign-related events.
In addition, you asked that we inform you, to the extent information is
available, about how many such events have been billed to HHS under the
current administration as compared to the previous one.
To address your inquiry, we requested, obtained, and reviewed financial
records and other documentation from HHS, interviewed HHS management
and staff, and conducted Internet and literature searches. We also
compared HHS's procedures for documenting events attended by the
President with our Standards for Internal Control in the Federal
Government.[Footnote 1] Additionally, we verified the mathematical
accuracy of all schedules of events provided by HHS. We did not request
information from the White House because our review focused on the
proper use of HHS funds. We conducted our work in Washington, D.C. from
January 16, 2003, through May 29, 2003, in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards.
Based on information obtained from HHS, we determined that the White
House entered into agreements to charge HHS for 15 events attended by
President:
George W. Bush from January 2001 through January 2003.[Footnote 2] A
memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the White House and HHS was
prepared to support each of the 15 events. Each MOA specifies the date
of the event and the city where the event occurred. The MOAs also
specify the maximum amount that the White House was allowed to charge
HHS for each event.
According to the MOAs, the White House was allowed to charge HHS a
maximum of about $523,000 in total for the 15 events attended by the
President. Through May 2003, the White House had charged HHS about
$252,000 for 8 of the 15 events.[Footnote 3]
HHS could not provide a detailed description of what the White House
charges were for because, according to HHS officials, the White House
does not provide them with copies of invoices or other records that
describe the charges in detail. Our Standards for Internal Control in
the Federal Government require that all transactions be clearly
documented and that documentation be properly maintained and managed
and readily available for examination. Further, an agency's management
directives, administrative policies, or operating manuals should
specify the internal controls and documentation requirements for these
transactions. HHS is currently developing written operating procedures
that require specific information with each request from the White
House for funding an event. However, we noted that these procedures do
not currently require HHS to obtain copies of invoices or other
itemized statements that provide detailed support for the final charges
billed to HHS.
The limited billing documentation provided by HHS included actual
amounts charged by the White House to HHS for the events, the specific
offices to be billed, and generally brief descriptions of the subject
matter covered during the events. For the 8 events billed by the White
House, several offices within HHS were charged including the
Administration for Children and Families, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, and the Office of Public Health and Science. The
events covered issues such as welfare reform, genetics, and
bioterrorism.
We determined and confirmed with HHS officials that the Secretary of
Health and Human Services or another HHS official accompanied the
President at 12 of the 15 events. We also determined from public
records of the President's schedule and other literature searches that
the President was involved in what appeared to be campaign-related
events that coincided with at least 9 of the15 HHS events. These
campaign-related events were separate from the official HHS events but
occurred on the same day in the same city or close by. The enclosure to
this report summarizes the information we obtained on events attended
by President Bush.
Regarding amounts billed to HHS for events attended by President
William J. Clinton, HHS provided a schedule that included events
attended by the former President from April 21, 1997, to September 29,
2000. This schedule showed that President Clinton attended 37 events
and that HHS was charged about $101,000[Footnote 4] for these events.
HHS also provided other information that made reference to 20 potential
events attended by President Clinton. However, HHS could not determine
if these events occurred. We had planned, as requested, to use the data
regarding President Clinton's attendance at events to draw certain
comparisons between the current and prior administrations. However,
HHS's uncertainty about the potential events discussed above, as well
as the fact that HHS was not able to provide us with assurances that it
has records for all events attended by President Clinton, led us to
conclude that making such comparisons would not be appropriate.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
While HHS maintains summary information on events billed by the White
House, such as the total amount charged for events, the offices billed
for the events, and the relevant subject matter of each event, records
that adequately describe the charges to ensure proper accountability
were not maintained. Agreements between the White House and HHS do not
currently require that HHS receive copies of invoices or other itemized
statements as support for the final charges billed to HHS nor do the
draft operating procedures that HHS is developing to direct its staff
in managing information related to events charged by the White House.
We are therefore recommending that the Secretary of Health and Human
Services direct the Assistant Secretary for Administration and
Management to:
* establish and institute procedures to ensure that HHS obtains
adequate documentation from the White House, including itemized
statements that explain and support the propriety of charges made by
the White House against HHS appropriations, and:
* issue a policy on how such documentation will be maintained and
managed to ensure that it is readily available for examination.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Secretary of
Health and Human Services or his designee. On June 5, 2003, the
Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management provided us with
oral comments on the draft. In his comments, the Assistant Secretary
agreed with our recommendations and indicated that when finalized,
HHS's processing procedures for the White House events discussed in
this report will provide directives on processing requests from the
first contact with the department through final payment and closeout of
the event, including requesting itemized invoices from the White House.
The Assistant Secretary also noted that under prior administrations
there was no centralized process similar to what HHS currently has
implemented to handle the processing of the Presidential events. The
Assistant Secretary stated that HHS's current centralized process
allows for closer review and follow-up of each event in order to ensure
proper closeout of the events. We did not verify how prior
administrations processed these events as this was outside the scope of
our review.
- - - - -:
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days
from its date. At that time we will send copies to the Secretary of
Health and Human Services and interested congressional committees. We
will also provide copies to others on request. This report will also be
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
If you have any questions about this report, please contact me on (202)
512-9508. Key contributors to this assignment were Kimberly Brooks,
Phil McIntyre, and Gina Ross.
Sincerely yours,
Linda M. Calbom:
Director, Financial Management and Assurance:
Signed by Linda M. Calbom:
Enclosure:
[See PDF for image]
[End of table]
FOOTNOTES
[1] GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1, November 1999.
[2] HHS officials reported that no additional agreements were
established from January 31, 2003, through May 29, 2003, for the White
House to charge HHS for events attended by the President.
[3] According to HHS officials, there is often a significant time lag
between the occurrence of the event and the billing from the White
House.
[4] HHS also provided information for 13 events attended by either Vice
President Gore or Mrs. Gore from April 1997 through September 2000. The
costs billed to HHS for those events were reported as $142,900.
However, because the scope of our review focused on events attended by
Presidents Bush and Clinton, we did not request detailed information
concerning these events. HHS officials stated that they are not aware
of any charges to the department for events attended by Vice President
Cheney, Mrs. Bush, or Mrs. Cheney.
