Review of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's Progress Towards Improving Accounting and Internal Control Weaknesses

GAO is required to audit the financial statements of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) at least once every 3 years. GAO reduced the scope of the 1983 audit and evaluated only the status of the PBGC improvement programs to correct previous accounting and internal control problems.

GAO conducted two previous audits of PBGC for the years ended September 30, 1977 and 1980. During those audits, major accounting and internal control weaknesses were encountered which resulted in the inability of GAO to verify material account balances or express an opinion on the fair presentation of financial statements. Regarding the recent audit, GAO found that, although some corrective measures are in process to satisfy previous GAO recommendations, they have not progressed far enough for their potential effectiveness to be assessed. PBGC had not completed preparation of its fiscal year 1983 financial statements at the time of the recent audit and another audit is planned for 1984. In the interim, GAO plans to monitor the progress of the PBGC improvement programs.