Department of the Interior's First-Year Implementation of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act

GAO reviewed the Department of the Interior's efforts to implement the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982, focusing on the activities of eight major bureaus and offices and coordinating its work closely with a related review being conducted by Interior's Inspector General.

GAO found that Interior made progress in carrying out its responsibilities under the act by assigning the responsibility for implementing its requirements, ensuring that the department's internal control evaluation process included all of the elements recommended by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and developing plans for correcting the material internal control and accounting systems weaknesses which were discovered. However, GAO found several areas where the internal control evaluation process could be improved, and it found that not all programs and functions were subjected to the internal control evaluation process. GAO also found that bureaus and offices did not always develop and maintain documentation to support the results of vulnerability assessments and internal control reviews nor did they test internal control techniques to ascertain whether they were functioning as intended. In addition, GAO found that individuals in five of the eight bureaus reviewed had not received training on how to conduct internal reviews. GAO also found that vulnerability assessments and internal control reviews were not closely monitored to ensure their compliance with OMB and departmental guidelines, and the guidelines developed for evaluating automatic data processing systems were not complete. Finally, GAO found that bureaus and offices did not fully document and test accounting systems in operation.